William James had a very interesting childhood. James's father was a somewhat renowned Swedenborgian, a philosophy mixed with Protestant ideology and Greek "muthos"--stories. He had a younger brother and sister, Henry James--a famous literary figure from the late 19th and early 20th century--as well as a sister Alice; who by many accounts including that of James himself she was the smartest of the three. Sadly, for reasons that plagued that time period, Alice was allowed to degrade into mental instability, ultimately dying of breast cancer at 43.
James too suffered from "depression", melancholy as it was often termed back in the day, though not nearly as bad as his sister. That said, James was raised in a very intellectual family. His father Henry lectured in Boston, often at Harvard, and when not lecturing he would take the family to places around the world. This gave James access to some of the finest minds of the early to mid 1800's. Figures such as Whitman and Emerson dined with Henry and his family, including the young William; just imagine the conversations he overheard. Keep in mind these are the days of no radio, television, or internet--the HORROR!! Anyway, needless to say James had a very interesting upbringing.
Along the way James would join an expedition of the Amazon River at the young age of 23, with then famous Louis Agassiz http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3910.html and finally meet Sigmund Freud in 1909, a year before James would pass away on Aug. 26th, 1910.
James had an interesting life to say the least, and that lead to an even more interesting and sadly neglected account of what it means to be human; or what is termed the "human condition" within philosophy. More about James's philosophical roots in the next post.
