Shima Shahrestani; Hamidreza Ayatollahy
Volume 5, Issue 1 , August 2016, , Pages 51-76
Abstract
Against evidentialists’ views, especially Clifford’s, William James has presented his views about the effect of will on belief. According to Clifford, for everyone, always and everywhere, it is wrong to accept a belief without sufficient evidences. William James, in contrast, believes that ...
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Against evidentialists’ views, especially Clifford’s, William James has presented his views about the effect of will on belief. According to Clifford, for everyone, always and everywhere, it is wrong to accept a belief without sufficient evidences. William James, in contrast, believes that instead fear of error, which is the Clifford’s way to apply ethics on belief, it is better to think getting to truth. He attempts to show that this view is the justifier of religious beliefs, in the way that people, regardless to evidentialism, consider themselves right in their believing in religious beliefs. James' views in the article ‘will to believe’ is established on pragmatism, ethics and psychology. He believed ‘will’ impacts beliefs both in their creation and in their control. James's psychological point of view is dealt with belief creation and his ethical view is concerned with belief control. There are some criticisms against James’ viewpoint; based on one of them, his attitude relativizes the value of faith. Adding two conditions to James’ approach and turning it into an externalist theory to justify religious beliefs, Bishop tries to solve the problem. Evaluating the James’ approach, this paper aims to study the Bishop’s solution.
Mehdi Akhavan; Seyyed Amin Moosavizadeh
Volume 4, Issue 1 , January 2015, , Pages 1-14
Abstract
William Clifford in the essay ‘The Ethics of Belief’, claimed that to believe on the basis of insufficient evidences is wrong, anywhere, anytime and for everyone. In the article ‘will to believe’, William James, replying this claim, argued that religious belief is a genuine decision ...
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William Clifford in the essay ‘The Ethics of Belief’, claimed that to believe on the basis of insufficient evidences is wrong, anywhere, anytime and for everyone. In the article ‘will to believe’, William James, replying this claim, argued that religious belief is a genuine decision and in such decisions, Faith justification is will to believe. The principal claim of James in the essay is to define genuine choice and to assign monotheistic faith to it. Believing in God if be a genuine decision must meet three characteristics: a) the inevitability; b) being alive; and d) being risky. In this paper, after reviewing a summary of the most important ideas of James and criticisms of him, we will check the validity of the assignment of the three characteristics to Faith.
