What Psychical Research Has Accomplished
E661620
"What Psychical Research Has Accomplished" is an essay by William James in which he critically examines and summarizes the findings and significance of late 19th-century psychical research into phenomena such as telepathy and spiritualism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| What Psychical Research Has Accomplished canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7410862 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: What Psychical Research Has Accomplished Context triple: [The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, hasEssay, What Psychical Research Has Accomplished]
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A.
The Message of Psychic Science to Mothers and Nurses
The Message of Psychic Science to Mothers and Nurses is a didactic work by Mary Everest that applies contemporary psychological and psychical ideas to the practical care and moral education of children.
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B.
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind is an influential 1829 work of associationist psychology and philosophy by James Mill that systematically examines mental processes through the principles of association.
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C.
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a religious and philosophical movement centered on the belief that the spirits of the dead can and do communicate with the living, often through mediums and séances.
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D.
The Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience is a landmark 1902 work of psychology and philosophy in which William James analyzes personal religious and mystical experiences to explore the nature and value of religion.
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E.
The Legend of Hell House
The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 British supernatural horror film, based on Richard Matheson's novel, about a group of investigators exploring a notoriously haunted mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: What Psychical Research Has Accomplished Target entity description: "What Psychical Research Has Accomplished" is an essay by William James in which he critically examines and summarizes the findings and significance of late 19th-century psychical research into phenomena such as telepathy and spiritualism.
-
A.
The Message of Psychic Science to Mothers and Nurses
The Message of Psychic Science to Mothers and Nurses is a didactic work by Mary Everest that applies contemporary psychological and psychical ideas to the practical care and moral education of children.
-
B.
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind is an influential 1829 work of associationist psychology and philosophy by James Mill that systematically examines mental processes through the principles of association.
-
C.
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a religious and philosophical movement centered on the belief that the spirits of the dead can and do communicate with the living, often through mediums and séances.
-
D.
The Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience is a landmark 1902 work of psychology and philosophy in which William James analyzes personal religious and mystical experiences to explore the nature and value of religion.
-
E.
The Legend of Hell House
The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 British supernatural horror film, based on Richard Matheson's novel, about a group of investigators exploring a notoriously haunted mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
non-fiction work ⓘ |
| aim |
to assess the scientific value of psychical research
ⓘ
to clarify what evidence psychical research had produced ⓘ to summarize the results of psychical research ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Society for Psychical Research NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| author | William James NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authorProfession |
philosopher
ⓘ
pragmatist thinker ⓘ psychologist ⓘ |
| contributesTo |
history of parapsychology
ⓘ
history of psychology ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| discusses |
apparitions
ⓘ
experimental studies of telepathy ⓘ fraud and error in psychical investigations ⓘ mediumship ⓘ trance states ⓘ |
| emphasis |
distinction between proven facts and speculative interpretation
ⓘ
importance of cumulative evidence ⓘ need for rigorous scientific controls ⓘ |
| genre |
parapsychology essay
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ psychology essay ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Society for Psychical Research investigations
ⓘ
late 19th-century psychical research movement ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
critical evaluation of paranormal claims
ⓘ
evidence for survival after death ⓘ methodology of psychical research ⓘ psychical phenomena ⓘ psychical research ⓘ scientific investigation of the paranormal ⓘ spiritualism ⓘ telepathy ⓘ |
| notableFor |
articulation of methodological standards for psychical research
ⓘ
attempt to separate genuine phenomena from superstition ⓘ balanced treatment of psychical research ⓘ |
| perspective |
critical but sympathetic
ⓘ
empiricist ⓘ pragmatist ⓘ |
| positionOnSpiritualism | cautiously open-minded ⓘ |
| positionOnTelepathy | treats telepathy as having some empirical support ⓘ |
| publicationPeriod | late 19th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: What Psychical Research Has Accomplished Description of subject: "What Psychical Research Has Accomplished" is an essay by William James in which he critically examines and summarizes the findings and significance of late 19th-century psychical research into phenomena such as telepathy and spiritualism.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
→
hasEssay
→
What Psychical Research Has Accomplished
ⓘ