William James’s Assessment of Nihilism as a Psychological Phenomenon
Phainomena December 29, 2024 Jon Stewart
William James, the American philosopher and psychologist, drew on his own severe depression at age 27 to address nihilism. In his 1896 essay “Is Life Worth Living?” and the 1902 chapter “The Sick Soul,” James proposed a solution to nihilism that, despite different formulation, matches the essence of solutions by Jean Paul and Poul Martin Møller. James’s originality lies in treating nihilism as a psychological problem rather than a purely philosophical one.