William James The Will To Believe

The argument presented by William James in “The Will to Believe” covers theistic beliefs and also includes various philosophical issues as well as matters of practical life. James's primary concern is to argue that Clifford's Rule is irrational. According to Clifford's Rule, one should avoid error at all costs and ultimately risk the loss of certain truths. James claims that Clifford's Rule is just one intellectual strategy and then makes an argument to seek truth by any means available, even at the risk of error or being completely false. James is not arguing against conforming one's belief to the evidence. Nor is he arguing against the importance of evidence. His argument is against withholding beliefs whenever there is little evidence,

Clifford responds to Pascal’s Wager with “The Ethics of Belief.” For Clifford, a major problem he has with Pascal’s Wager is the lack of evidence. “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence” (Peterson et al. 103). For Clifford, sufficient evidence and origin of belief are all that matter. A belief is a disposition to act, and Clifford maintains that one cannot separate belief and action. Consequently, Clifford

In Kelly James Clark’s Article “Without Evidence or Argument”, Clark argues that belief in God, does not require the support of evidence or argument in order for it to be rational. Clark’s argument is against W.K. Clifford’s article “The Ethics of Belief”, in which Clifford claims that everything must be believed only on the basis of sufficient evidence (139). Throughout Kelly Clark’s article he states many things that support his conclusion of belief without evidence or argument, however, my paper will only discuss what Clark says on p.139 starting with the paragraph “The first problem with Clifford’s…” and the following paragraph, ending with the words “...to see why.”

Beliefs based on bad evidence are always wrong no matter what the issue is. Clifford’s two examples clearly show why it is never okay to believe things without having facts to back up what you’re thinking. He also shows that accusing others based on incomplete evidence can negatively affect them. If people always try to justify their beliefs on bad evidence, they

According to Clifford (1879), there is an ethics to belief that makes it always wrong for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence. Clifford (1879) begins his paper by providing an illustrative analogy – one where a ship-owner is preparing to send to sea a ship filled

In his lecture, “The Will to Believe,” William James addresses how one adopts a belief. There is a hypothesis and an option, where you choose between two live hypotheses. An option has the characteristics to be live or dead, forced or avoidable, and momentous or trivial. In his thesis, James argues how “our passional nature” must make our decisions about our beliefs when they cannot be certainly determined on “intellectual grounds,” however, this is not the case, we can always make the decision based on intellectual grounds. One can use Bayesian probability to gain some grasp of the situation and eventually to make a decision.

James conceived a more practical, and dynamic view of how human beings act. He developed a distinguishable definition of psychology, which identified pragmatism. He defined psychology as the science of mental life, regarding both its phenomena, and conditions (James, 1998, p. 139). The phenomena accounts for what is found in the soul, while the conditions were the antecedents of this mental life. James evaluated the spiritualist, and associationist schools of thought as the two most influential processes which explain the phenomena, and conditions.

William James’ book was entitled: Principles of Psychology which was published in 1890 and also established him as one of the greatest thinkers of his time.

The Will to Believe is a lecture that was presented by William James in 1896, it specifically defends that one can choose to believe in a religion without prior evidence of its truth. William James was a well-distinguished philosopher as well as a psychologist and a physician. He with a few other philosophers like Charles sanders Pierce and John Dewey were fundamental in establishing modern philosophy in America and are thought to be the founding fathers of pragmatism.

Born in 1845, William Clifford was a mathematician and philosopher famed for his philosophy of science and quest for answering ethical questions through scientific evidence (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). Clifford recognized several difficulties in Emmanuel Kant’s argument related to philosophy, which inspired him to begin a search for answers related to innate belief, personal responsibility of guilt, and overall creation. In the Ethics of Belief, Clifford asserts that it is always wrong to believe based on insufficient evidence, a theme that would follow his opinion on every issue he chose to tackle.

William James’s main thesis is that when an option is live, forced, and momentous and cannot be achieved by intelligent ways, one might and must let one’s illogical nature make the decision. One might have faith in what one desires to be correct, otherwise what makes one pleased. This seems to be anti-Clifford principle. Because, Clifford’s is of the opinion that in such cases one is ethically appreciative to postpone decision. And by following the course of not have faith in, as to do otherwise will be to belief on intelligently inadequate proof.

In The Varieties of Religious Experience, James tells us that the truth is as we experience it, and he argues that the truth as experienced by people like you and is way more significant in the long run, and it also has a greater impact in our life, than the "universal" scientific facts we are told. He investigates religious accounts as they were experienced by the people who had them. His main method for this is to review many accounts of experiences told by people, and then looking for common aspects and patterns between their stories. James identified several of these common aspects and patterns, then he organized lectures around them. Each lecture talks about some different aspect of a religious experience, such as “Conversion” "The Reality of the Unseen," "Philosophy," and "Mysticism." In each lecture we

William James was an American philosopher and psychologist who specialized in Pragmatism and philosophy related to such. He led a philosophical revolution in the USA and would make the philosophy known as ¨Pragmatism" very well known. In his book ¨The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy", William explains different philosophical beliefs while also challenging them and supporting the right to believe in a religion or even life itself. William James' style of writing is more Expository mainly due to his explanation of different philosophies/religions but showing pros and cons of many different philosophies.

This section provides us with two selections from the essays of William K. Clifford (1845-1879) and William James (1842-1910). Clifford's essay, The Ethics of Belief, is based on the concept of evidentialism. This concept 'holds that we should not accept any statement as true unless we have good evidence to support its truth'; (Voices of Wisdom, 346). James wrote his essay, The Will to Believe, as a response to Clifford's essay where he endorsed a philosophy called pragmatism.

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