RECONSTRUCTING JAMES'S EARLY RADICAL EMPIRICISM: THE 1896 PREFACE AND "THE SPIRIT OF INNER TOLERANCE"

This paper re-contextualizes William James's early radical empiricism based upon a historical and philosophical reading of the 1896 preface of The Will to Believe. I suggest that James's "irrational" early radical empiricism, as guided by the "spirit of inner tolerance," is tinged with a fringe sensitivity or awareness of the epistemic outsider. Based upon his critique of the blind monist, this paper argues that when we look toward a wider conception of James's philosophy, it reveals that his early radical empiricism is intimately concerned with social and moral elements with regard to matters of fact and perspective. Utilizing Gavin's manifest-latent hermeneutic, I show how James defends this type of outsider, the epistemic underdog, with the hope of creating a more open, free, and democratic marketplace of ideas and practices that is predicated upon the value of respectful difference.