1 A Lifelong Friendship

Abstract

In September 1882, William James, the Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Harvard, took a sabbatical and sailed to Europe.James aimed at improving his acquaintance with the leading psychologists of his time and their ideas.He also had personal reasons to leave: his mother had died in January, and depression, restlessness and insomnia loomed as always. 1 At the end of October, on his way from Venice to Dresden, James stopped in Prague, where he met the eminent physiologist Ewald Hering and the polyhedric physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach.James also paid a visit to Carl Stumpf, a young professor of philosophy who had come from Würzburg in 1879. 2 The name of his unannounced American guest probably did not ring any bell in Stumpf's mind.But James was one of the few Americans who had attentively readand enjoyed -Stumpf's book of 1873 on the origin of the perception of space.3 I will leave a more detailed analysis of the issue of space to the next section of this Introduction; for now, let us say that Stumpf's nativistic and anti-idealistic views on the subject were highly congenial to James.During their days in Prague, James and Stumpf felt a reciprocal human sympathy that marked the beginning of a long and loyal friendship.Far beyond the mere obligations of academic courtesy, Stumpf was pleased to stroll around with the brilliant and somewhat unconventional American colleague.Stumpf's personality and his "more than hospitable reception" must have impressed James.Addressing his wife Alice the day after leaving Prague, he wrote: With Stumpf I spent 5 hours on Monday evening, (This is Thursday) 3 on Wednesday morning, and 4 more in the afternoon, so I feel rather intimate.[. ..]He had another philosopher named Marty to dine with me yesterday, a jolly young fellow.[. ..]I learned a https://

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