Analysis of James: The Will to Believe
Jane Doe
Instructor T
Philosophy 101
5 Oct. 2013
Analysis of James: The Will to Believe
I
In this article by William James, it is clear that he criticizes the views of William Kingdon Clifford, who argued in The Ethics of Belief, that it is always wrong to believe anything for which the evidence is insufficient. James on the other hand thinks that occasionally despite what evidence points to, that if true beliefs are more important, then believing without strong evidence may be sufficient. James then goes on to describe that a hypothesis is anything that may be proposed to our belief. First he distinguishes between a live and dead hypothesis. A live hypothesis according to James “is one which appeals as a real possibility to him to whom it is proposed…It refuses to scintillate with any credibility at all. As an hypothesis it is completely dead…the hypothesis is among the mind's possibilities: it is alive.” James states that “this shows that deadness and liveness in an hypothesis are not intrinsic properties, but relations to the individual thinker.” James then states that there is a decision between two hypotheses and options. The three options are, living or dead, forced or avoidable, and momentous or trivial. Living is personally meaningful, forced is mutually exclusive, and momentous is involving potentially important consequences.
II
The next matter to consider according to James is the actual psychology of human opinion. James argues how one comes to have beliefs as well as how one chooses to believe something simply by an effort of will. For example, James claims in his article, “Can we, by just willing it, believe that Abraham Lincoln's existence is a myth, and that the portraits of him in McClure's Magazine are all of someone else?...or feel certain that the sum of the two one-dollar bills in our pocket must be a hundred dollars?”. As much as one would try so hard to believe that it is true, can one prove it to be with factual evidence?
Instructor T
Philosophy 101
5 Oct. 2013
Analysis of James: The Will to Believe
I
In this article by William James, it is clear that he criticizes the views of William Kingdon Clifford, who argued in The Ethics of Belief, that it is always wrong to believe anything for which the evidence is insufficient. James on the other hand thinks that occasionally despite what evidence points to, that if true beliefs are more important, then believing without strong evidence may be sufficient. James then goes on to describe that a hypothesis is anything that may be proposed to our belief. First he distinguishes between a live and dead hypothesis. A live hypothesis according to James “is one which appeals as a real possibility to him to whom it is proposed…It refuses to scintillate with any credibility at all. As an hypothesis it is completely dead…the hypothesis is among the mind's possibilities: it is alive.” James states that “this shows that deadness and liveness in an hypothesis are not intrinsic properties, but relations to the individual thinker.” James then states that there is a decision between two hypotheses and options. The three options are, living or dead, forced or avoidable, and momentous or trivial. Living is personally meaningful, forced is mutually exclusive, and momentous is involving potentially important consequences.
II
The next matter to consider according to James is the actual psychology of human opinion. James argues how one comes to have beliefs as well as how one chooses to believe something simply by an effort of will. For example, James claims in his article, “Can we, by just willing it, believe that Abraham Lincoln's existence is a myth, and that the portraits of him in McClure's Magazine are all of someone else?...or feel certain that the sum of the two one-dollar bills in our pocket must be a hundred dollars?”. As much as one would try so hard to believe that it is true, can one prove it to be with factual evidence?