Henry James and the Philosophy of Literary Pragmatism

This book examines the interdisciplinary foundations of pragmatism
from a literary perspective, tracing the characters and settings that populate
the narratives of pragmatist thought in Henry James’s work. Cultivated during a
postwar era of industrial change and economic growth, pragmatism emerged in the
late nineteenth century as the new shape of American intellectual identity.
Charles Peirce, William James, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were close
friends who founded different branches of pragmatism while writing on a vast
array of topics. Skeptical about philosophy, William James’s brother, Henry,
stood at the margins of this group, crafting his own version of pragmatism through
his novels and short stories. Gregory Phipps argues that James’s fiction weaves
together the varied depictions of individuality, society, experience, and truth
found in the works of Peirce, Holmes, and William James. By doing so, James
brings to narrative life a defining moment in American intellectual and
material history.