On this day in New York · January 11, 1842
William James Is Born at the Astor House
The man who would give American psychology its name, and its first course, started out as a guest in his own father's rented rooms at Broadway's fanciest hotel.
The facts
- Born
- January 11, 1842, at the Astor House hotel, Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Streets
- Father
- Henry James Sr., an independently wealthy Swedenborgian theologian
- Sibling
- Younger brother Henry James, the novelist, born 1843
- Legacy
- Often called the father of American psychology; helped found pragmatism with Charles Sanders Peirce
William James was born on January 11, 1842, at the Astor House, the grand hotel his family was staying at on Broadway across from City Hall Park. His father, Henry James Sr., was an independently wealthy Swedenborgian theologian who moved the family constantly between New York, Europe, and New England. William grew up to become, by most accounts, the first person to teach a psychology course in the United States, and he later helped found pragmatism alongside Charles Sanders Peirce. His younger brother, born a year later in the same restless household, was Henry James, who took the family's gift for observation and turned it into some of the finest novels in the English language.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
William James, diary entry, April 30, 1870
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
James spent his life arguing that ideas only matter if they change how you live, and that line about choosing to believe in free will became the closest thing psychology has to a founding creed. A hotel room on Broadway produced one brother who mapped the mind and another who mapped the novel, and New York got credit for both.
Sources
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