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In the title essay, William James defends the right to believe in something, religious faith for example, before there is enough evidence to prove it, when…
In the title essay, William James defends the right to believe in something, religious faith for example, before there is enough evidence to prove it, when the choice is 'living, forced and momentous' and cannot be settled by the intellect alone; to refuse to decide, he argues, is itself a decision. Other essays in the volume ask 'Is Life Worth Living?' and discuss the moral philosopher and the moral life, the dilemma of determinism, great men and their surroundings, and psychical research.
Context and significance
James published the collection in 1897 and dedicated it to his old friend Charles Sanders Peirce. Written for general audiences, it is among his liveliest work, and the title essay is still debated wherever faith and reason meet. Read his Pragmatism and The Varieties of Religious Experience, and see his life.
About the author
William James (1842–1910), the older brother of the novelist Henry James, studied painting and then medicine, and after years of depression became a professor at Harvard, where he taught the first course in psychology in America and set up one of the first psychology laboratories.
His Principles of Psychology made the new science readable, his Varieties of Religious Experience studied faith with sympathy, and his philosophy of pragmatism asked what difference an idea makes in practice. He wrote with a warmth and clarity rare among philosophers.