I’m doing some research into William James for the next episode of No Country. I came across this YouTube video that gives a good primer and overall feel for James’ ideas. The speaker is entertaining and funny.
I’m particularly interested in what James called our “ontological wonder-sickness.” I wonder if it’s gotten better or worse than it was back in his time. I have a feeling the answer to that is worse…but I truly have no way of knowing.
It seems that in our hunt to quantify everything, we’ve lost any real sense of mystery in the world. People do strange things all the time, but any identification of strangeness appears to upset people. If you’re really into bugs, that’s a little weird. But also cool!
I will report back on my findings after I read A Pluralistic Universe.
Broken River Blog 