William James became known as one of the foremost names in psychology in the late 19th Century for the writing of Principles of Psychology. In this text James discussed many topics that before his time had been practically untouched, such as habit, the stream of thought, consciousness of self, discrimination and comparison, the production of movement, instinct, and hypnotism. This short introduction to James' work by Robert H. Wozniak helps us to break down and summarize those different aspects within the James' dissection of the human psyche. Wozniak includes James' theory on emotions, his beliefs on self identity, and breaks down his beliefs on steams of consciousness. The author describes how James' "played a major role in shifting psychology away from elementalism toward a functional, process oriented account of mind (and eventually behavior)." Obviously William James played an enormous role in shaping the way we look at the science of psychology today.http://psychclassics.asu.edu/James/Principles/wozniak.htm
I didn't know that William James was so influential in psychology, so its interesting to see that he had a big influence in fields outside of philosophy. James' idea of the self seems a little like his idea of pragmatism to me. We have 3 different types of selves, each true when we need them in regards to different situations.
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