The Will to Believe (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781720582106)

The Will to Believe by William James. "The Will to Believe" is a lecture by William James, first published in 1896, which defends, in certain cases, the adoption of a belief without prior evidence of its truth. In particular, James is concerned in this lecture about defending the rationality of religious faith even lacking sufficient evidence of religious truth. I have long defended to my own students the lawfulness of voluntarily adopted faith; but as soon as they have got well imbued with the logical spirit, they have as a rule refused to admit my contention to be lawful philosophically, even though in point of fact they were personally all the time chock-full of some faith or other themselves. I am all the while, however, so profoundly convinced that my own position is correct, that your invitation has seemed to me a good occasion to make my statements more clear. Perhaps your minds will be more open than those with which I have hitherto had to deal, I will be as little technical as I can, though I must begin by setting up some technical distinctions that will help us in the end.

Author: William James
ISBN-10: 1720582106
ISBN-13: 9781720582106
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Language: English
Published: 05/31/2018
Pages: 30
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.12lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.06d