William James and the Moral Life ThisbookoffersacompellingnewinterpretationofJames’moralphilosophy: an “ethics of responsible self-fashioning.” James’ performative writing style articulates this conception by showing how moral inquiry serves both social andpersonaltransformation. James the social moral philosopher seeks to create an inclusive moral order through expansion of sympathetic concern among those committed to different ideals. James the existential moral philosopher defends the right to adopt hope-grounding metaphysical beliefs which encourage strenuous moral action in the face of evil and suffering. The power of James’ ethics is demonstrated by its application to current discussions about the status of marginalized nonhuman animals and that of the cognitively disabled. William James and the Moral Life is of interest to a wide variety of ethicists and has special appeal to scholars and advanced students in moral philosophy, social philosophy, pragmatism, and American philosophy. ToddLekanisAssociateDeanandProfessorof Philosophyatthe University of South Carolina Lancaster, USA. Routledge Studies in American Philosophy Edited by Willem deVries, University of New Hampshire, USA and Henry Jackman, York University, Canada Pragmatism and Social Philosophy Exploring a Stream of Ideas from America to Europe Edited by Michael G. Festl C. I. Lewis The A Priori and the Given Edited by Quentin Kammer, Jean-Philippe Narboux, and Henri Wagner Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics and the Normative Sciences James Jakób Liszka The Ethics, Epistemology, and Politics of Richard Rorty Edited by Giancarlo Marchetti Intentionality in Sellars A Transcendental Account of Finite Knowledge Luz Christopher Seiberth Disability and American Philosophies Edited by Nate Whelan-Jackson and Daniel J. Brunson William James and the Moral Life Responsible Self-Fashioning Todd Lekan The Ethics of Richard Rorty Moral Communities, Self-Transformation, and Imagination Edited by Susan Dieleman, David E. McClean, and Paul Showler For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/Routledge-Studies-in-American-Philosophy/book-series/RSAP William James and the Moral Life Responsible Self-Fashioning Todd Lekan Firstpublished2022 byRoutledge 605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158 andbyRoutledge 4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninforma business ©2022ToddLekan TherightofToddLekantobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced orutilizedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording, orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin writingfromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Lekan,Todd,1967-author. Title:WilliamJamesandthemorallife:responsibleself-fashioning/ ToddLekan. Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2022.|Includesbibliographical referencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2021052357(print)|LCCN2021052358(ebook)| ISBN9781032221649(hardback)|ISBN9781032226460(paperback)| ISBN9781003273523(ebook) Subjects:LCSH:James,William,1842-1910.|Ethics.|Conductoflife.| Pragmatism.|Philosophy,American. Classification:LCCB945.J24L4352022(print)|LCCB945.J24(ebook)| DDC191--dc23/eng/20220110 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021052357 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021052358 ISBN:978-1-032-22164-9(hbk) ISBN:978-1-032-22646-0(pbk) ISBN:978-1-003-27352-3(ebk) DOI:10.4324/9781003273523 TypesetinSabon byTaylor&FrancisBooks For William, Rose, and Alice Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction: Why William James and Ethics? 1 1 Pragmatist Moral Philosophy and Moral Life: Embracing the Tensions 9 2 Ideals and Significant Lives 36 3 The Sources of Moral Agency 57 4 Existential Deliberation 78 5 Moving Marginal Subjects Into Focus 115 Conclusion 134 References 140 Index 145 Acknowledgments This book has been a long time in the making. I recall floating the idea to Michael Eldridge in a hotel hallway at the meeting of the American Philo- sophical Association in December 2008. While Mike was a Deweyan, I would like to think that he would appreciate my approach to James’ ethics, were he still with us. Many conversation partners and critical interlocuters have helped shaped my understanding of James’ thought and pragmatist ethics during my work on this project. With apologies to those who I may have left out, I want to thank Scott Aikin, James Campbell, Steven Fesmire, Kim Garcher, Jim Garrison,Micah Hester,DavidHildebrand, HenryJackman,HeatherKeith, Sarin Marchetti, Mark Moller, Megan Mustain, Gregory Pappas, James Pawelski, Stuart Rosenbaum, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, and Robert Talisse. I owe a special thanks to Joe Palencik for detailed feedback during the early stages of this project. Some of the ideas in Chapter 3 are the result of an unpublished paper that I cowrote with him. I thank Andrew Weck- enmann, Allie Simmons, Jenny Guildford, and Neil Dowden of Routledge for their stellar work during the publication process. At every stage they were professional, responsive, and kind. Several institutions and organizations deserve mention. Muskingum Uni- versity granted mesabbatical leaves in 2009 and 2019 which werecrucial for my work on this book. I am grateful to Dean Walt Collins of the University of South Carolina Lancaster for his support of my scholarship. I have benefited much from the meetings and publications of the William James Society. Some of the ideas in this book were tested in presentations at meetings of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. For its convivial community, I am most grateful. Chapter 2 appeared as “The marriage of ideals and strenuous actions: exploring William James’ account of significant life” in Transactions of the Charles. S. Peirce Society, 52 (4), Summer 2016, 576–597. A portion of Chapter 3 appeared as “Who are moral philosophers? Ethics William James style,” The Pluralist, 13 (1), 2018, 81–96. I thank the editors of these jour- nals for permission to use this work. Acknowledgments ix Portions of Chapter 1 are drawn from the chapter “Pragmatist moral philosophy and moral life: embracing the tensions,” ed. S. Marchetti, The Jamesian mind, Routledge, 2022. Portions of Chapter 5 are drawn from the chapter “Just like ananimal: Cognitivelydisabled humans and the argument from marginal cases,” ed. N. Jackson and D. Brunson, Disabilities and American philosophies, Routledge, 2022. Finally, I offer loving gratitude to my life partner Meghan Wynne whose creative writing practice inspires me, and for so much more that defies my powers of expression.