Joseph Brewer

Philosophy-Summer 2014
Professor Alexander Izrailevsky, Ph.D.
E-Portfolio Link: http: //jstevensbrewer.weebly.com/intro-to-philosophy-phil-1000.html























Joseph Brewer
William James and his moral philosophy on boredom
To start off I would like to explain some of the reasons that I chose the philosopher
William James to write about. Some of the reasons are as follows. I feel that his philosophy is
not shallow, his ideas and findings are usually on a deeper level of thinking. His ideas are very
thought provoking. In my view he is not single minded but looks at the universe as a whole as
well as everyones views as a whole and explains how it all works together. In my opinion
several parts of his philosophy are not only interesting but can be very helpful in understanding
ourselves and the universe.
What I will be writing about is a part of the moral philosophy of William James namely
the moral problem of boredom and how it leads to many other problems. I will talk about
William James solution to this problem and how those solutions work. First though I will give a
short biography of the life of William James.
Biography of William James:
William James was born in New York City in the year 1842. His father wanted his
children to have the best education that they could. His family traveled to Europe frequently and
it is there that William James received a lot of his schooling. Early in his life James wanted to be
a painter but he eventually abandoned that path and entered into Harvard. At Harvard he entered
medical school and later graduated with an M.D. After this he became more and more interested
in psychology, and was eventually offered a job to teach at Harvard. James wrote many books
concerning psychology philosophy and others.
Throughout His life James suffered from depression and numerous health problems, but
this did not stop him from becoming one of Americas great thinkers.

The Moral Problem of boredom
According to William James the biggest moral issue that we face is the issue of boredom,
not just any boredom but a boredom of life basically when our life seems meaningless and
empty. I see it as a lack of being content, a lack of drive. Similarly, if we are bored with an
activity we are involved in, we get sloppy, complacent, our focus and drive fall away from the
activity, we get to a point where we just go through the motions and do not see any more
importance in the activity. Soon because of this lack of stimulus we give up or become
frustrated, which soon turns into a hate and despise for that activity that caused our boredom.
Along the road this activity becomes so boring to us that it has absolutely no importance and we
want to escape it. All this can be applied to the boredom that James speaks of. Applying this
example to a more dangerous and critical level, we can become bored with ourselves or life. We
soon lose excitement in ourselves, life, loved ones etc, because of this loss of excitement we
soon get sloppy with our actions and we are not as detail oriented, we take things for granted and
we start going through the motions. We lose sight of the importance of life, family, etc. we are
no longer content with what is going on around us and we could become frustrated and start to
hate ourselves, our loved ones etc. at this point if we continue on this path it will lead to some
type of withdrawal or rebellion.
So how else can something such as boredom lead to many other problems? I will
examine some examples and show why I think they stem from boredom.
Boredom leads to selfishness:
If we allow our lives to become meaningless and boring we will soon see no value in the things
that we currently have and are blessed with. Thus in turn we lose gratitude, because of this we
will not care to share with others and we will want more and more in order to have something to
give our lives meaning. As I see it, as we become more selfish we see the need to gain more and
more no matter what in order to fill that void caused by our boredom of possession.
Boredom leads to hate:
I will illustrate this point with an example: if one kid is playing with some marbles and soon
becomes bored and looks around and sees another kid playing with a Frisbee and having lots of
fun, naturally the first kid is going to want to play with the Frisbee because he sees the joy and
fun the second kid is having. Depending on how things play out the first kid could become
jealous of the second kid, in turn this jealousy can lead to hate. Thus hate can be ceased by our
envy of another person because they have something that we cannot which is content and
happiness that cannot be had if we have this boredom of life.
Boredom leads to indifference:
If something does not provide us with excitement, entertainment or purpose then it quickly
becomes of no use to us and because of this it becomes unimportant, because of this we become
indifferent and see no reason to care what happens because we have lost purpose and drive. This
indifference can be most dangerous because at this point it does not matter what happens because
we will have a whatever, does not matter attitude which is caused by this boredom of self
purpose.
We can now see through just a couple of examples how boredom can lead to more
destructive behaviors. When someone becomes selfish they will only think of themselves and not
care about others. When people have hate within them then they are aggressive towards others
and in some cases would want to do them harm. With indifference people will do whatever
without regards to others because of their lack of interest and care.
One other aspect I want to examine is how boredom not only leads to other emotions that
lead to problems but how boredom can lead people to take actions in order to end this boredom
that they experience. Some might take action towards rebellion because it offers them excitement
that the norm cannot give them. Others unfortunately may take their life in order to escape
the life they have because they see it as meaningless and boring. So with these problems that
stem from this, how are we able to fix the problem?
William James has a couple of solutions to this problem of boredom. He proposes that
community involvement, Charities and being open to the needs of others will help solve the
problem. So how do these things help to prevent boredom? I will examine each of these and
show how they offer a solution.
Community Service and Charities:
Through community service and Charities we immediately have some involvement in
helping our community and others and not just helping ourselves. When we are doing service for
our community we are willingly volunteering our time in order to help out. Same with donating
to a charity, we willingly give up something to help another. This gives us a sense of purpose.
We are not being forced to do this and because of this through are willingness to help out, we see
a greater importance on what we do, thus adding more purpose to our efforts. A lot of times a
depression that stems from boredom is caused because we see ourselves as unimportant. Through
community service and charities we can see a direct effect on how we are an important part in
helping and how with many working together a lot can be done. Another important point I see is
the appreciation that comes from efforts put forth into community service or a charity. When you
willingly give up something in order to help someone there is at most times a lot of gratitude
shown. This gratitude has a powerful effect on helping someone to feel wanted and appreciated;
it helps them to see their importance when it comes to other peoples needs. In contrast: the same
effects are not as powerful if you are helping someone else out because it is your job I am not
saying that an important job cant have the same effect, but if we are willingly volunteering and
not expecting to get something in return there is even more positive effects all around. I would
like to illustrate the power behind community service and Charities with an example:
We have a teenager named Jack. Lately Jack has been suffering from a dangerous self
boredom. He is in a depression because he sees his life as meaningless. He has no true friends
and is very lonely. Someone suggests to him to come out to a service project the next day. The
service project involves cleaning up a local park and planting trees and flowers in the park. Jack
shows up the next day and is very involved in the service project; the following are the results of
this involvement:
-Since everyone is involved with the same objective (Creating a better Park) Jack feels that he is
part of a team, and makes some good friends through a positive experience.
-Because he is not being paid he feels a sense that he is really giving back to the community.
-Through this project, Jack sees how his hand has helped out in the community, he sees that in
one way or the other he has had a positive impact on his community.
-Since he sees the good in his community in helping with the service project he has an easier
time building trust in the community and seeing its importance.
-With the involvement in the project, Jack is able to see the talents of others and see the
importance the individuals in the community.
-When the project is complete, Jack feels satisfaction and accomplishment.
In conclusion through this involvement in the community, Jack now feels like he is truly part of
the community and this uplifts him and is a major step in helping him to feel purpose and
eliminate the Boredom within himself.
Openness to the needs of others:
I feel this works a lot like community involvement but more on an individual level.
Instead of helping out the community you are helping out a particular person and in turn this will
help give purpose to your life and it will give you some importance. Also being open to the
needs of others helps you to eliminate indifference and hate. When we help out our friends,
family or just a stranger we build up that relationship with that person, and we become less
selfish and more focused on how we can help others and not ourselves. By helping others and
being mindful of their needs not only do we see our importance to them but we build up very
powerful traits and behaviors that counteract destructive behaviors. The biggest of these positive
traits is Love, as we show love for each other we in turn we will be loved and this obviously
helps our self esteem and we see the importance of things in our lives and we will not get
complacent but we will be content and happy, and free of boredom.
In conclusion I see these solutions as not only ways of eliminating this destructive
boredom but more importantly it helps to eliminate the things that boredom can lead to, thus
stopping boredom from turning into something more destructive. For example boredom can lead
to a hatred of others, but when we are open to the needs of others then it is much harder for that
boredom to turn into hate because we learn to love others when we help them
Boredom is a simple thing that can lead to more destructive behaviors. The solution to
this is doing what we can to help out individuals communities and others, by doing this we build
up positive behaviors and thus we cut down on boredom and the destructive behaviors that stem
from it. From a religious stand point Jesus says it best Love one another.










Works Cited
Cherry, Kendra. "The Life and Theories of Psychologist William James." About.com
Psychology. Web. 23 July 2014.
Izrailevsky, Alexader, Ph.D. "The American Pragmatist: William James." Utah, Salt Lake City.
23 July 2014. Lecture.