William James Makes a Decision

http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/JamesByBandura.pdf
Provided by the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University

This piece is primarily comprised of block quotations from The Letters of William James (1906), interspersed with some commentary by Albert Bandura, formerly of Stanford University.

James talks about being a visiting scholar at Stanford, and, for the most part, loving it: "...for any one who wants to teach and work under the most perfect conditions for eight or nine months, and who is able to get to the East, or Europe, for the remaining three, I can't imagine anything fine. It is Utopian."

Not surprisingly (because of his characterized indecision), despite the seeming perfection, by the end of the term he seriously debates leaving Stanford, and though proud of his self-proclaimed improved lecturing ability, is dismayed by having not written anything with his time so uptaken by preparing lectures.

James writes about his internal struggle: "I think it is inertia against energy, energy in my case meaning being my own man absolutely."

Of course, James generally was his own man absolutely, changing majors, interests and professions according to his ever-changing tastes. But this tug-of-war between energy and inertia is something that I think we all deal with, and has a lot to do with pragmatism and practicality. Oftentimes doing what we think we should do (inertia) conflicts with doing what we want to do (energy), and practicality suggests the weighing costs and benefits of the two. In James' case, the scale was tough to tip, making the decision all the more difficult.

But sometimes an outside force can make the decision much easier. And for James, that's exactly what happened, and he was uncharacteristically decisive when it did.

The San Andreas fault underneath Stanford's campus "rumbled unmercifully in the early morning of April 18," as Bandura put it. Shortly thereafter, James submitted his resignation and traveled back East, never to venture out West again.