Analysis Of Will To Believe

In William James’s “Will to Believe,” there is a strong focus on amending William K Clifford’s argument surrounding the belief. According to Clifford, belief is completely reliant on evidence. Not only is it completely reliant on evidence but on “sufficient” evidence. James quoted Clifford’s summary of belief in section 2, stating that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” While James showed clear disagreement in Clifford’s assertion, his focus in defending the will to believe centered more on providing the individual with options while recommending the “genuine option” in terms of their will to believe.

The main way James defends our will to belief is in his argument of the human

I, for one, can see no proof; and I simply refuse obedience to the scientist 's command to imitate his kind of option, in a case where my own stake is important enough to give me the right to choose my own form of risk. If religion be true and the evidence for it be still insufficient, I do not wish, by putting your extinguisher upon my nature (which feels to me as if it had after all some business in this matter), to forfeit my sole chance in life of getting upon the winning side,--that chance depending, of course, on my willingness to run the risk of acting as if my passional need of taking the world religiously might be prophetic and

He argues that the mere chance that he could be one the winning side is better than living with fear of not being. In essence, he argues that the hope of some form of success in the possible eternal scheme of things is better than fear of error just to enjoy a finite world. James’s philosophy in basing one’s belief refers back to his recommendation for the individual to be an empiricist rather than an absolutist. While an absolutist feels he or she knows the truth when they find it, the empiricist keeps searching regardless of the truths they might have encountered. In relation to the religious belief, instead of feeling contented with the evidence one has for a finite truth as a way to avoid encountering error in searching further, James believes one should risk error for the simple fact that truth is eternal and changing. The potential for that eternity in truth is why I believe James in part supports the religious hypothesis. Another reason why he defends the religious hypothesis is because it comprises of the qualities that he deems worthy to be a genuine option. He argues in being momentous, it offers worldly gain that one would forfeit in not believing while in being forced, one cannot be skeptical because it would mean losing the momentous goodness as a consequence of avoiding error. This, along with the hope a religious belief provides, is an adequate