William James - the right to believe

1
William James - the right to believe

• William James (United States, 1842-1910)
• Degree in medicine from Harvard
• 1865-66 - accompanies Louis Agassiz on a
  scientific expedition to Brazil
• 1872 - instructor in physiology at Harvard
• 1875 - begins teaching psychology at Harvard

2

• William James
• in Brazil
• June 1865

3
William James - the right to believe

• 1879 - teaches philosophy at Harvard
• One of the co-founders of pragmatism, together
  with Charles Saunders Peirce John Dewey

4

• William James
• ca. 1885

5

• Henry William James
• in England, 1901
• on the occasion of William James Gifford
  Lectures

6
William James - the right to believe

• The Will to Believe (1896)
• Thesis It is rational to believe in religious
  claims even though empirical logical evidence
  is not compelling. We do not have a right to
  believe in all matters in which empirical
  logical evidence is not compelling. We only have
  this right in some areas of knowledge.

7
William James - the right to believe

• The importance of will in building knowledge
  established via a critique of Pascal Clifford
• Pascal -- the wager has no bite without a
  predisposition to believe
• Conclusion Our will influences our convictions
  very much. Pure reason never settles matters.

8
William James - the right to believe

• Clifford -- emphasizes the avoidance of error
  above all. But this results in often losing the
  truth it risks closing off certain realms of
  knowledge experience. Importance of will in
  this.
• Areas where one is justified in going beyond
  compelling evidence logic
• (1) morals

9
William James - the right to believe

• (2) personal relations
• (3) religious faith
• In all of these areas, faith in the fact may help
  create the fact

10
William James - the right to believe

• Another set of restrictions (second) in which
  making acts of the will (faith) which go beyond
  knowledge evidence
• The situation must present an option which is
• (1) living
• (2) forced
• (3) momentous

11
William James - the right to believe

• Scientific options usually does not meet these
  three conditions.
• Under these two sets of conditions, one is
  justified in exercising an act of faith, in the
  sense of making an act of the will which goes
  beyond logic evidence.
• In religious faith, extending ones self may
  unveil knowledge which otherwise would have
  remained hidden.

12
William James - the right to believe

• Critical comments
• Is James arguing that in religious faith, one is
  justified in going beyond all evidence logic?
• Is James arguing that we can create facts?