William James : A Unique Interpretation Of Pragmatism

It is said that man, to survive, has always needed something or some belief to hold on; be it science, religion or magic. Man without a belief lacks hope (Walker, 1997). Lack of hope makes a man vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances. To avoid this vulnerability man has been holding onto different belief systems.

“A Worldviews give faith-based answers to a set of ultimate and ground- ing questions. Everyone operates on the basis of some worldview or faith-based understanding of the universe and persons— examined, or unexamined, implicit or explicit, simplistic or sophisticated. One way or

Pojman talked about why he thought subjectivism was a useless concept, and pointed out the absurd consequences of the theory. He said if we agree with subjectivism, then there can be no argument nor interpersonal judgment. By reason of subjectivism does not depend on social agreement of principle, and the situation could only be considered as wrong, if one failed to live up his or her principles; if the person felt right then it would be impossible for him or her to do wrong. By strengthen his argument, Pojman indicated subjectivism has disregarded a vital fact, that which people often share commonalities, including, common language, institutions, and habits. He then quoted John Donne, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man

This book shines a light on the concept of collective thinking and how it has pushed us forward. For example, not only does religion allow people to believe in the same myths, legends, and gods. It allows Sapiens to work in the millions from all over the work. Harari tries to explain that large-scale human cooperation exists not only for religion but in other forms.

William James explains his position on religious belief by relating his idea to that of Pascal’s. He does think that is reasonable to believe in God without evidence, but not based on Pascal’s wager which is to base your belief on cost-benefit analysis; James thinks this is wrong because it is not live. James does think it is permissible to believe without evidence when we have a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds. That is when our passional nature takes over and decides the matter. James states how when he is explaining passional nature he means “all factors of belief as ear and hope, prejudice and passion, imitation and partisanship, the circumpressure of our caste and set,” and then says that when we find ourselves believing we don’t know how or why. James begins his paper by explaining is stance on belief by writing that anything that may be proposed to our belief is a hypothesis. He goes on to explain that the decision of two hypotheses is an option. There are several options: living if both possibilities appeal as real possibilities for the agent, forced if it is unavoidable, and momentous if it is not trivial. He states that religion is a momentous option, and that “we are supposed to gain, even now, by our belief, and to lose by our non-belief, a certain vital good.” He then goes on to say that religion is also a forced option; we cannot remain skeptical and wait for a greater evidence to believe. However, he does say that

“There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and his say” (James). This quote from William James uproots the concept of ethics in society entirely. James begins to explain that every man will have his own experience in life, which will end up leading to different opinions. These different ideas can be influenced by “the psychological question, the metaphysical question, and the casuistic question. The psychological question asks after the historical origin of our moral ideas and judgments” (James).

I prefer to say that I believe in people, and people, when given the right encouragement to think for themselves about all the information now available, very often turn out not to believe in God and to lead fulfilled and satisfied—indeed, liberated—lives.

have faith that they will wake up the next day in a good mood, despite

Upon reading William Clifford’s essay “The Ethics of Belief” and George Santayana’s essay on James in “Character and Opinion in the United States”, we now critically analyze James’s argument in favor of religious belief in his essay “The Will to Believe”. After briefly explaining the underlying descriptors that are entrenched in formulating a hypothesis in becoming a firm belief, we’ll further follow up on applying them to his notion of religion and the potential it has on an individual, as well as the antithetical approach provided by William Clifford.

William James was an American psychiatrist and philosopher, born in 1842 and touted as the leader of the philosophical movement of Pragmatism and of the psychological movement of functionalism (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). James’ rebuttal to the Clifford’s Ethics of Believe, was the famed Will to Believe.

Dr. William James, it is no secret that your theory of pragmatism has been questioned, but found more successful than Dr. E.B. Titchner’s. Why do you feel this is so?

Pragmatism is described in the book as a method for settling philosophical disputes. It is based on the pragmatic theory of truth. This theory says that a 'proposition p is true if and only if the belief that 'p is true' works'; (Voices of Wisdom, 346). In order

When reading William James, Pragmatism Conception of truth, I found myself quite confused throughout the reading, I wanted to obtain all information on the theory of what we perceive are truth, I found that my perception changed throughout the assignment many times, just as James has stated both reality and our ideals are constantly changing, so did my perceptions. I cannot tell you why they changed from author to author but I am sure that my definition will continue to change until I find that what is true, is true for me only, and that others might not see truth as I might see truth.

William James studied pragmatism through psychology and religion. James thought originally about philosophy; “The whole function of philosophy ought to be to find out what definite difference it will make to you and me, at definite instants in our life, if this world formula or that world formula be the true one.” In James’ book The Varieties of Religious Experience he took a positive attitude toward religion yet opposed the idealist schools of speculative ideas (Choron 283). James was a very methodical man. “Truth happens to an idea” was another theory of James’. In order for an idea to be true an event

The most practical of analytical philosophy also included Moore, and Carnape. The American (neo) pragmatism philosophy is a philosophical movement that was given systematic terms by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James and later taken up and revamped by John Dewey. Pragmatists stress the practical purpose of knowledge as a way for acclimatizing to reality and controlling it. Pragmatism concur with empiricism in its emphasis on the importance of experience over a priori reasoning. However the truth had customarily been discussed in terms of communication with reality or in terms of coherence pragmatism embraces that truth is to be sought in the process of verification. Pragmatists translates ideas as means and plans of action rather than as images of reality; more specifically, they are recommendations and anticipations of possible conduct, hypotheses or forecasts of what will result from a given action, or ways of organizing behavior(Answer,2010)