William James and the Metaphysics of Experience

William James is frequently considered one of America''s most important philosophers as well as a foundational thinker for the study of religion. Despite his reputation as the founder of pragmatism he is rarely considered a serious philosopher or religious thinker. In this new interpretation David Lamberth argues that James''s major contribution was to develop a systematic metaphysics of experience integrally related to his developing pluralistic and social religious ideas. Lamberth systematically interprets James''s radically empiricist world-view and argues for an early dating (1895) for his commitment to the metaphysics of radical empiricism. He offers a close reading of Varieties of Religious Experience; and concludes by connecting James''s ideas about experience pluralism and truth to current debates in philosophy the philosophy of religion and theology suggesting James''s functional experiential metaphysics as a conceptual aid in bridging the social and interpretive with the immediate and concrete while avoiding naive realism.