A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")

A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought") is the 322nd episode of the Very Bad Wizards podcast, released on December 09, 2025.

Opening Quote

Show Notes

David and Tamler return to William James' monumental "Principles of Psychology", this time wading through his famous chapter "The Stream of Thought." We talk about his rejection of empiricist theories of consciousness in favor of a view that consciousness is a continuous stream of thoughts, sensations, and emotions without any elements (atoms) that repeat or appear in other people's streams. We talk about how vividly James captures certain features of consciousness, like trying to recall a forgotten name, or the ways that the subjective per of two people differ radically in the same environment. And we debate the merits of James' methodology as well as his universalist ambitions. Plus, we discuss one of the early to mid-2000s papers, how seeing Batman on a subway makes you more altruistic because – wait, hold on, what, this study is from 2025?? Pagnini, F., Grosso, F., Cavalera, C., Poletti, V., Minazzi, G. A., Missoni, A., ... & Bertolotti, M. (2025). Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect. npj Mental Health Research, 4(1), 57. James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Chapter 9: "The Stream of Thought" [free access to fulltext via psychclassics.yorku.ca] We are teaming up with givedirectly, and a whole bunch of podcasters to help families in Rwanda. While match funds last, your donation will be 1.5x matched, meaning every $100 donation will turn into $150 for families in need. Go to givedirectly.org/wizards if you find it in your heart to give a donation.