Cover to a collection of James' essays.

"The Will to Believe" is the title of William James classic lecture (published in 1897) defending the right to violate evidentialism in cases of hypothesis venturing (hypothetico-deductivism) and self-fulfilling prophecies. The work is controversial because James' main purpose in it is justifying beliefs in freewill, God, immortality, etc. It is sometimes mocked as the "wish to believe doctrine." James himself changed the name of the doctrine several times. First appearing as "the duty to believe," then "the subjective method," then "the will to believe" and finally as "the right to believe." The reason James' hypothetico-deductivism is able to justify positions often not believed to be verifiable using any method, is that James' pragmatism allows him to use the consequences of the hypothesis (emotional consequences in addition to empirical consequences) as evidence for that hypothesis' truth. Therefore, James allows us to adopt God as a hypothesis without evidence and then verify that hypothesis by what fruits the belief brings us in our life. William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. ... Evidentialism is a theory of justification according to which believing proposition p is justified for some agent S at time t iff S s total evidence at t supports p; that, in short, the justified attitude toward a proposition, be it belief, disbelief, or suspension of judgment, is the one... The hypothetico-deductive model is a theory about scientific method. ... A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true. ... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to us. ... God is the deity believed by monotheists to be the supreme reality. ... Immortality (or eternal life) is the concept of existing for a potentially infinite, or indeterminate, length of time. ... One of Wikipedias rules to consider. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Empirical is an adjective often used in conjunction with science, both the natural and social sciences, which means an observation or experiment based upon experience that is capable of being verified or disproved. ... God is the deity believed by monotheists to be the supreme reality. ...

Throughout James’ career, he would offer descriptions of what sort of empirical evidence would verify this-or-that metaphysical claim. Ultimately, James had never been too concerned with proving the existence of God. His main concern was justifying beliefs in freewill, possibility, pluralism, and in particular, in the possibility of morality. In the following passage, James utilizes his will to believe doctrine to justify a belief that "this is a moral world": Metaphysical may refer to: Metaphysics, a branch of philosophy dealing with the ultimate nature of reality; or The Metaphysical poets, a poetic school from seventeenth century England who correspond with baroque period in European literature. ... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to us. ... Possibility comprises that which one can achieve, or alternatively ones potential. ... Pluralism is, in the general sense, the affirmation and acceptance of diversity. ... Morality deals with that which is regarded as right or wrong. ...

It cannot then be said that the question, Is this a moral world? Is a meaningless and unverifiable question because it deals with something non-phenomenal. Any question is full of meaning to which, as here, contrary answers lead to contrary behavior. And it seems as if in answering such a question as this we might proceed exactly as does the physical philosopher in testing an hypothesis. [….] So here: the verification of the theory which you may hold as to the objectively moral character of the world can consist only in this,--that if you proceed to act upon your theory it will be reversed by nothing that later turns up as your action’s fruits; it will harmonize so well with the entire drift of experience that the latter will, as it were, adopt it. [….] If this be an objectively moral universe, all acts that I make on that assumption, all expectations that I ground on it, will tend more and more completely to interdigitate with the phenomena already existing. [….] While if it be not such a moral universe, and I mistakenly assume that it is, the course of experience will throw ever new impediments in the way of my belief, and become more and more difficult to express in its language. Epicycle upon epicycle of subsidiary hypothesis will have to be invoked to give to the discrepant terms a temporary appearance of squaring with each other; but at last even this resource will fail. (William James, "The Sentiment of Rationality") A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, particularly something special (literally something that can be seen from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ... In international law, harmonisation refers to the process by which different states adopt the same laws. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... In the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle (literally: on the cycle in Greek) was a geometric model to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets. ...

The hypothetico-deductivism James developed in his "Will to Believe" lecture was later extended by his protégé F.C.S. Schiller in his lengthy essay "Axioms as Postulates." In this work, Schiller downplays the connection between James' doctrine and semi-religious positions. Instead, Schiller stresses its ability to justfy our beliefs in the uniformity of nature, causality, space, time, and other philosophic doctrines have generally been considered to be empirically unverifiable. German pragmatist very like William James. ... The philosophical concept of causality, the principles of causes, or causation, the working of causes, refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... Space has been an interest for philosophers and scientists for much of human history, and hence it is difficult to provide an uncontroversial and clear definition outside of specific defined contexts. ... A pocket watch, a device used to measure time. ...

Today, James' "The Will to Believe" continues to be widely read and debated. It, and W.K. Clifford's essay "The Ethics of Belief" are touchstones for any contemporary debate over evidentialism, faith, and overbelief. James' doctine is today standardly refered to as either the will to believe doctrine or the right to believe doctrine. W. K. Clifford may refer to: William Kingdon Clifford, British mathematician and philosopher; or Mrs. ... Evidentialism is a theory of justification according to which believing proposition p is justified for some agent S at time t iff S s total evidence at t supports p; that, in short, the justified attitude toward a proposition, be it belief, disbelief, or suspension of judgment, is the one... The word faith has various uses; its central meaning is similar to belief, trust or confidence, but unlike these terms, faith tends to imply a transpersonal rather than interpersonal relationship – with God or a higher power. ...

External links

• Expressivist analysis of James' essay {PDF file}, URL accessed August 12, 2006