How Did Oliver Wendell Holmes Influence Society

After reading the entirety of the assignment in detail, the influences of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and William James has further illuminated the context of which Pragmatism was created. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a fascinating and complex character, suffered a great deal of tragedies during his service in the American Civil War. The accumulation of his experiences during the war led him away from several aspects of his worldview prior to. Furthermore, William James’ worldview was influenced heavily by his father, Henry James, Sr.; a man who possessed unorthodox views of the world and personal traits. In order to further depict how Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s experiences in the war and William James’ experiences with his father, Henry James,

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was a young man at this time, studying at Harvard University. Unlike his father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was against the idea of slavery and received much of his inspiration from Ralph Waldo Emerson, an anti-institutionalist who was a part of the abolitionist party. In fact, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. gained his infatuation for Emerson via his father; who wasn’t in favor of abolishing slavery, but admired Emerson enough to gift a collection of Emerson’s books to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. one year for his

He began to remove positions of absolutes or inherent duties from his thinking. Instead, Holmes saw the world as being moldable to a degree. In fact, he believed that the only duty that a person could have was that to one’s self in their immediate, semi-permanent context. Other than this temporary context, there is no further guidelines to how a person is to live his/her life. During his time as a supreme court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. repeatedly voted in favor of bills that would, not establish a single truth, but establish the principle of the freedom to choose one’s own