Pluralistic Universe

I’ve been reading William James’ Pluralistic Universe off-and-on for about seven weeks now. But I’m going about it very differently than any other book I’ve read. I wanted to really get this book. Basically, Pluralistic Universe is eight hour-long lectures James gave in 1908, which is neat because you can read each chapter in an hour and imagine Professor James is addressing you sitting in the audience. Back in July, I read a chapter a night, and then re-read the same chapter the next day at lunchtime. In two weeks I read through the whole book. Then, I went back, and re-read each chapter a third time, in order, taking notes on whatever seemed to strike me as relevant and fascinating. I now have one final task before I post about the actual content of the book. I want to review my notes, then leisurely re-read the book, preferably over a long weekend.

How I will accomplish this, with all the craziness that I currently find myself foundering in, is anyone’s guess. I’m hoping my wife will give me a couple of days off as an early birthday gift, but with our basement being redone, our offices being moved here and there, and a baby room to be painted, all within the next three weeks, I ain’t countin’ on it. But I’ll get it done somehow. Because it goes against every grain of my body, as a hopper.

As a quick note, I really, really enjoyed James’ book. It’s more a lengthy attack against Idealism, as formulated by our friend Hegel and his late-eighteenth-century American disciples, than the Professor expounding his own theories, though the final chapter is sort of an endorsement of pluralism. But I hope to get into that in a week or two. Shooting for the first week in September.

I took Pluralistic Universe off the “Current Reads” section to the left, even though I still have to finish my fourth and last reading, and replaced it with Transformation in Christ, which I started yesterday and am very excited to delve into. More about that book later …