James McHenry: A Minor American Poet

William James as American Plato ?

Alfred North Whitehead wrote a letter to Charles Hartshorne in 1936 in which he referred to William James as the American Plato. Especially given Whitehead’s admiration of Plato, this was a high compliment to James. What was the basis for this compliment and analogy? In responding to that question beyond the partial and scattered references provided by Whitehead, this article briefly explores t...

Reflections of a Computer Poet on American Social Dynamics (Or How This Makes Sense)

We analyze computer-generated poems written with a mesostomatic algorithm. We show that computer-generated poetry is meaningful in the same way as human-generated poetry and that this poetic meaning must renounce one-to-one correspondence to reality, objective or subjective. We further show that the ability of a computer poet to produce meaning is stable with respect to a change in language. On...

The Pathologist as Poet

The role of the humanities (eg, philosophy, bioethics, literature, music, theater, religion, anthropology) in medical education has been argued long and hard for decades. It is argued that the study of subjects included in the humanities can enhance critical thinking skills, foster a deeper level of learning and understanding, and help to enhance one's level of compassion, empathy, and moral/et...

William Faulkner, William James, and the American Pragmatic Tradition (review)

An English Poet in Scotland :

Travelling is at the core of the romantic experience of life, as it implies a form of reaching out in quest of experience, which will then be, to quote famous words, “recollected in tranquillity”. The romantic poets travelled considerably, both physically and mentally, and I will try to address the two forms of journey in this paper, since I believe that imaginary excursions colour our view of ...