‘My Philosophical Needs and Instincts’
In the following excerpt from “Experience as Philosophy,” Distinguished Professor of American Philosophy John J. McDermott describes how his teacher, Robert C. Pollock, steered him in the auspicious direction of William James.
"In the middle 1950s, I was beginning research for a dissertation on Max Scheler. In a startling and transforming conversation, Pollock told me that I was working in a terrain alien to my philosophical needs and instincts. He suggested that I study American Philosophy, about which I knew nothing. Directly, he told me to start with William James, and in my doing so, I became captivated not only by James, but also by the powerful notion of experience that striated his thought, as well as the entire undertaking of American philosophical and intellectual history....”
McDermott, John J. “Afterword: You are Really Able,” Experience as Philosophy: On the Work of John J. McDermott, Eds. James Campbell and Richard E. Hart; American Philosophy Series. Eds. Douglas R. Anderson and Jude Jones; New York: Fordham University Press, 2006 (p. 249).