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William James

William James. The Will to Believe. A justification of faith. An address to the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown Universities, 1896

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William James

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  1. William James The Will to Believe

  2. A justification of faith • An address to the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown Universities, 1896 • “A defense of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logical intellect may not have been coerced.”

  3. I • Hypothesis—anything which may be proposed to our belief • Live or dead—is it a real possibility? • Option—choice between two hypotheses • Living or dead • Forced or avoidable • Momentous or trivial • A genuine option is living, forced, and momentous.

  4. II • Psychology of belief • Talk of believing by volition is simply silly, or perhaps vile (Pascal). • “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for every time, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”

  5. III • But, our passional tendencies do influence our convictions. • “The state of things is evidently far from simple; and pure insight and logic, whatever they might do ideally, are not the only things that really do produce our creeds.”

  6. IV Thesis • “Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, ‘Do not decide, but leave the question open,’ is itself a passional decision—just like deciding yes or no—and is attended with the risk of loosing truth.”

  7. V • We are on dogmatic ground—truth exists • Empiricist way—We can attain the truth but cannot infallibly know when. • Absolutist way—We can know the truth and can know when we know it.

  8. VI • An argument for the empiricist way • The dogmatic absolutist faces the origin (terminus a quo) to provide strength for the outcome (terminus ad quem). • The dogmatic empiricist will take an hypothesis from anywhere.

  9. VII • Two ways to look at our duty in the matter of opinion • Seek to know truth • Avoid error • “Our errors are not such awfully solemn things”

  10. VIII • Who seeks truth best? • Not the disinterested seeker • One with eager interest, balanced by a concern not to be deceived • Can we always wait for all the evidence before deciding?

  11. IX • Moral questions cannot always wait for sensible proof. • Faith in a fact sometimes helps create the fact.

  12. X • Religion says: • The best things are the more eternal. • We are better off even now, if we believe this to be true. • This can be a living, forced, momentous option. • Add to that the personal form of religion (I-Thou)

  13. A Conclusion • We need not keep our willing nature out of the decision. • We cannot prove either option and so each must act as he or she thinks best. • We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of a blizzard—we must act for the best. • Act and hope for the best and take what comes—this is a good way to meet death.

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