20世纪八九十年代兴起的“意识研究”(或意识科学)被誉为意识研究的“第二个黄金时期”,威廉·詹姆斯是意识研究“第一个黄金时期”最有影响力的开拓者。詹姆斯在意识研究上的开拓性和全面性工作涉及四个方面:第一,詹姆斯在哲学和心理学上关于意识的众多主题的研究在当代仍显示出跨时代的蓬勃生机。第二,詹姆斯是意识的科学研究的开拓者之一,他认为心理学在一定程度上也是神经生理学。第三,詹姆斯在意识研究的方法论上持多元开放的态度,自发地将意识的第一人称研究与第三人称研究结合在一起。第四,詹姆斯率先将宗教体验与神经学的研究结合起来,开创了宗教体验的神经学研究。在当代意识科学的背景中概括和回顾詹姆斯的意识研究具有双重意义:既有助于确定詹姆斯在意识研究中的历史地位和价值,也有助于系统理解詹姆斯为当代意识科学提供的思想资源。
The 1980s- 90s witnessed the rise of "consciousness studies" (or more generally, "science of consciousness ), the so-called "Second Golden Age. " Science of consciousness is a multidisciplinary research area which involves philosophy, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, etc. As "father of modern consciousness studies," William James (1842 - 1910) was among the most influential pioneers of " the First Golden Age" of " consciousness studies. " His pioneering and comprehensive work in "consciousness studies" involves four aspects. First of all, James' research topics of consciousness in philosophy and psychology, covering almost all subjects of "consciousness studies," are still exerting vigorous vitality. His radical empiricism is an original contribution to solving the problems of substance dualism, determinist materialism, and rationalism. Secondly, James was one of the pioneers in the scientific study of consciousness. He believed that psychology must to a certain extent be a neurophysiology, and it must not only concern with various phenomena of the mind, but also explore the brain as it is the direct physical condition of those phenomena. Thirdly, because of his position in pragmatism and radical empiricism as well as his seriousness in the neuroscience researches of consciousness, James's attitude towards the methodology of consciousness studies was pluralism. He naturally integrated the first-person (generalized phenomenology) study of consciousness with the third-person (empirical science) study. Recent neurophenomenology is the best footnote of this methodology route. Fourthly, James regarded religious experiences as part of the spectrum of human consciousness and life of mind. He took the lead in combining the study of religious experiences with neurology, opened up the field of neurological researches of religious experience and established the " science of religion. ~r James was a non-disciplinary scholar in that his studies of