The Stream of Consciousness: XV. James in Recent Context (1981–1986)

Abstract

Addressing work on consciousness published in this Journal allows me to bring relevant present-day material to bear on my ongoing exploration of James's stream. Instead of, as before, making use of an author's findings or ideas to improve our understanding of James's stream, I inquire into what each author has explicitly drawn from James's work in his or her article. I consider all fifteen published volumes of Imagination, Cognition and Personality in successive units of five, beginning with the first five years in this article. Of special interest are the specific ways present-day psychologists, who are strong on objective method, demonstrate or acknowledge the relevance to their work of the introspectively grounded propositions of their great predecessor. Discussed in the present article are theses belonging to five large topics: 1) the perception of reality, 2) conceiving of consciousness, 3) the emotions, 4) altered states of consciousness, and 5) discriminating imaginal from perceptual awareness.