William James and the Power of Orientation: Toward a Pragmatist Approach to Communication

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar II
  In Paper Session: William James, Pluralism, and the Flux of Communication

Abstract

William James often featured subjective orientation or dispositions as vital parts of his pragmatic versions of epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics. How a subject orients herself toward experience truly matters, both for the outcome and subjective quality of that experience. What could James’ prizing of subjective orientations mean for how we theorize, practice, and meliorate communication? This paper will engage James’ lesser know writings on morality and his often-overlooked work on religious experience to elucidate a theory of subjective orientation. Drawing on his work on mind cure in religious settings, a Jamesian notion of orientational persuasion will be explicated. This concept of orientation in communication will also be shown to dovetail with constructivist work in communication and psychology, thus setting a path for future meliorative work in the study of communication.

Author

• Scott Stroud, University of Texas at Austin