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Introduction
William James was born in New York on January 11, 1842. He came from a wealthy family and had the opportunity to travel to many different places in Europe. This allowed him to become fluent in several languages including Italian, French and German. William James's first interests were related to art. However, he later realized that he was more interested in science. In 1861 he started studying topics such as physiology and chemistry and in 1864 he entered Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree in 1869. Shortly after, in 1870, he fell into a life crisis. After this difficult period, William James started working as an instructor of physiology at Harvard. It was not until 1885 that William James started his position as a full professor.

Henry Holt approached William James requesting him to write a textbook on psychology. William James accepted and signed a contract in 1878. He started writing the book, Principles of Psychology, in 1878 and he finished the book in 1890. William James originally thought Principles of Psychology would only take two years to write, but he became so involved in writing it that it took him 12 years to complete instead. Principles of Psychology is extremely important for psychology, philosophy, and physiology. In the book William James not only described and explained everything that was currently done in psychology, but he also proposed new theories and ideas.

Author background
William James made many other contributions to the sciences, but one of the most influential was his textbook The Principles of Psychology. Although this was one of his most influential contributions,William James had his doubts about Principles of Psychology. His doubts are best summarized by his own letter to his publisher Henry Holt where he said "The Principles of Psychology is a loathsome, distended, tumefied, bloated, dropsical mass, testifying to nothing but two facts: 1st, that there is no such thing as a science of psychology, and 2nd, that W. J. is an incapable.” In between the time of first agreeing to publish The Principles of Psychology, and its final publication, James published sixteen articles that coincided with major areas of the book. He reasoned through many areas of this book using the method of introspection, or looking in on one’s self for information. A shorter version of The Principles of Psychology was published in 1892 called Psychology the Briefer Course. 

Book summary
Principles of Psychology is divided into 2 volumes. The first volume contains 16 chapters and the second volume contains 12 chapters. William James wrote Principles of Psychology using a pattern in which main ideas or concepts are explained first, then more specific ideas and concepts are explained later in the book. Thus, the book goes from more general ideas to more specific ones.

With this strategy William James started his book explaining basic concepts in the psychology field, followed by general ideas about the brain and mind. At that point he began to explain theories about conscious and unconscious thought. He then narrowed those concepts to topics such as attention, sensation and perception, and memory. He explained ideas and theories about reasoning, emotions, will, instinct and hypnosis in the final pages of Principles of Psychology.

One of William James's main ideas was the stream of thought. He utilized this term due to the concept that thoughts are continuous and always changing. .William James also stated that thought is a conscious action and each thought does not need to be dependent on the other. Another important concept from James’s Principles of Psychology is the notion of habit. He explained that habit is something that is hard to be reversed and that habits can be good or bad. Nevertheless, they construct the person who you become.

Emotion is perhaps one of the most important topics in Principles of Psychology. William James proposed a new theory for emotion. He proposed that we first complete an action then feel something about it. Therefore, emotions are generated by actions. This concept predicts that emotion is the result of the body action, not the cause.

In Principles of Psychology William James writes about the differences between will and wish. He defends that will is a voluntary action,and that an action that determines the motivation to act or to do something. The stronger the will the stronger the motivation to act. Another pioneering aspect to Principles of Psychology is that William James was open and interested in topics like religion, hypnosis, and parapsychology. This vastly contradicted the approach of other psychologists of that time.

Achievements
The Principles of Psychology laid the foundation for texts in psychology. It covered several topics in psychology and was over 1,400 pages long. Principles of Psychology was unique in that it not only covered several varying topics, but also went into detail on the various approaches and viewpoints associated with the topics presented. The Principles of Psychology was also unique in that it was written with eloquent language that no other psychology textbook could compare to. This book was key to William James's fame and assisted in establishing William James as a scholar. The book at first was received with varying opinions from controversy and criticism to excitement. Today Principles of Psychology is widely respected. It also remains one of the most influential textbooks on human behavior.

Book reviews and critiques
Wilhelm Wundt and William James, both prominent psychologists, were critical of each-others' work. This was likely due to them both being leaders in the psychology field and having contrasting opinions. Wundt appreciated James quality of writing but stated Principles of Psychology was not psychology. He stated it was instead “simply literature”. James was equally critical of Wundt’s work and stated Wundt would “never have a Waterloo for he is a Napoleon without genius and with no central idea which if defeated brings down the whole fabric in ruins”.

Robert Wozniak is a psychologist and the author of an introduction and commentary to Principles of Psychology. In this work, Wozniak, gave praise for Principles of Psychology. He claimed it was “The most important text in the history of modern psychology.” He also claimed Principles of Psychology was “unique in the history of human thought”.

One of the most classic reviews of the Principles of Psychology was the review by Gordon Allport. The review he wrote was for the 100th anniversary of William James's birth. Allport was a prominent psychologist in personality psychology. Allport reported that the Principles of Psychology has grown to be legendary from the time it was published to present day. He also believed that people respect Principles of Psychology, but that today people are bewildered by its concepts. He believed this bewilderment was caused by the contradictions throughout the book. Allport explained that these contradictions were used to expansively cover the broad spectrum of topics in the field of psychology. This differs substantially from past approaches in that William James covered a vast array of topics, while others focused on one area and viewpoint. An example of William James' use of contradictions can be found in the automaton theory. William James first fully supports the theory then later states it is unwarrantable. Another contradiction example was the various explanations to the mind and body problem. John Dewey and Irwin Edman stated that William James approaches were aligned with biological and situational behaviorism while Boring insisted William James was a phenomenologist. Allport believed that William James was able to support both viewpoints. Allport reported that these contradictions were used to fully cover all functions and states of the mind in psychology. James goal was to approach psychology as a whole and to cover all aspects and viewpoints.

While Wilhelm Wundt heavily criticized Principles of Psychology, and Robert Wozniak heavily praised it, Brent Heffron appears to take middle ground with his opinions. Heffron is a psychologist from the University of Minnesota. He wrote an article examining the contradictions made in Principles of Psychology. Heffron stated that there are inconsistencies within the book but states these inconsistencies can be explained by William James multiple perspectives on the various topics in Principles of Psychology. Although there are these inconsistencies, Heffron claims that “no one else has been as consistently ranked among genius.” He also claims that James' book allowed him to retain respect among experts for a long and consistent period of time. Heffron goes on to state that Principles of Psychology was “the most significant psychological treatise ever written in America and perhaps the most important English language psychology text in history”. Jacques Barzun, a historian, further praised Principles of Psychology by stating it “is an American masterpiece which quite like Moby Dick ought to be read from beginning to end at least once by every person professing to be educated. It is a masterpiece in the classic and total sense”.

Contributions
One of William James’s major reasons for writing Principles of Psychology was to define and unify the field of psychology. One of the major areas in the Principles of Psychology is the human will. James struggled with his own understanding of the will. This struggle was largely due to him questioning whether humans possessed a will in the first place.This questioning led him into a period of depression and suicidal ideation. Upon further research he came to believe that humans do in fact possess a will. This improved his mindset, and he started acting as though he himself was not a deterministic entity. This lead to his contributions in the fields of psychology and physiology. Some believe that if he had pondered the existence of the human will differently, his works would not have been so influential. Another major contribution was its role in expanding the scope of psychology from its earlier definitions. Before Principles of Psychology, the major definition of psychology came from Wilhelm Wundt. He believed that the field of psychology should focus on consciousness, and an individual’s subjective experiences of the outside world and their mind. This was later known as structuralism. Compared to the scope of topics covered in Principles of Psychology; Wundt’s focus was a narrow approach to the field. The publication of Principles of Psychology led to a more diverse study of the mind, and fueled debate about the field of psychology.

Why important and how it changed things at time of publication
Principles of Psychology received international acclaim. This was due to William James's ability to combine English, French, German, and Italian concepts. The book became an international endeavor due to the use of these concepts. Principles of Psychology was also innovative and unique for its time. “The more traditional topics (e.g., the functions of the nervous system, sensation, the perception of time, space, objects, and reality, imagination, conception, reasoning, memory, association, attention, emotions, and will) were rarely dealt with in a traditional manner; and a whole series of non-traditional topics (e.g., habit, the stream of thought, consciousness of self, discrimination and comparison, the production of movement, instinct, and hypnotism) were introduced in ways that forever changed the discipline”. William James views were also unique giving Principles of Psychology a new approach. In particular his views on consciousness lead the way in shifting psychology from elementalism to functionalism. Dynamic psychology was also affected by Principles of Psychology, due to James's opinions on motivation, emotion, and self.

How it is used today
Principles of Psychology, is still referenced in college psychology classes around the world. It is considered by some to be one of the most influential and important works in the history of psychology. Many of William James's ideas on habits, emotions, attention, consciousness, the will, and countless other areas of psychology are still relevant today. An example of William James's influence can be found through the James-Lange theory of emotion. This theory has 4,750 results on Google Scholar and his ideals continue to influence present day research. It took over a century for researchers to acquire the ability to start supporting this theory.

Future use
In the past Principles of Psychology served to grab attention from the public and make psychology a more popular field. Principles of Psychology laid out everything that was done in the psychology field. William James was a talented writer and was able to explain many difficult concepts in an elegant and interesting way. As a result, he motivated many people to pursue an education in psychology. In the future, James’s book Principles of Psychology could be used as a historical log of everything that was done in psychology before its publication.

In addition, because it contains information on previous research and studies, it could be used as a reference for future studies. Future researchers have the possibility to use James’s book for initial research, before they start conducting their own. Principles of Psychology is arguably one of the most important pieces of work ever written in the history of psychology.