Notes on William James' Lecture 'A Will to Believe'
Quotes plus some brief commentary
Below are some notes I jotted down when reading William James’ lecture A Will to Believe.
James, a prominent American philosopher, psychologist and founding member of the philosophical movement ‘pragmatism’, first delivered the lecture in 1896.
These notes were taken as I was reading, so any thoughts were spontaneous reactions to what I regarded to be noteworthy.
James commences this lecture by claiming that the talk is an attempt to justify the adoption of a belief system by a human being.
The credibility of a belief system, how lively a hypothesis is, is determined by the perspective of the individual. Christianity maybe a credible belief system to many in some parts of the world, but to others, it is merely superstition.
The credibility of the set of rules are determined by the individuals “willingness to act” on them.
Stating the obvious - you gain nothing by doing nothing. You also gain nothing by not believing. James - “He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he tried and failed.”
Subtly, James is questioning whether there is an upside to non-belief. After all, what are you gaining by not even trying to believe.
James: “for us, not insight, but the prestige of the opinions, is what makes the spark shoot from them and light up our sleeping magazines of faith”
James here alludes to the modern phenomenon ‘luxury beliefs’ - he is aware that our opinions can grant us status (admittedly, there is no reference to the second prong of the definition, which is that luxury beliefs also inflict costs on the lower classes).
“Do not decide, but leave the question open," is itself a passional decision,-just like deciding yes or no,--and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth.”
James is here highilighting the risk of inaction. Inaction is an action in and of itself. In life, we do not get to not make a decision.
“Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found? I am, therefore, myself a complete empiricist so far as my theory of human knowledge goes.”
The idea of objective evidence is fine when speaking of things intelligible to man. But it rules everything which is not. This is the point James is playing with.
“If a man chooses to turn his back altogether on God and the future, no one can prevent him; no one can show beyond reasonable doubt that he is mistaken. If a man thinks otherwise and acts as he thinks, I do not see that any one can prove that he is mistaken.”
“I have also a horror of being duped; but I can believe that worse things than being duped may happen to a man in this world”
Believing in something that could be false is better than avoiding belief out of a fear of being deceived. Commitment to the truth should triumph over cynicism. Seek what you crave, rather than avoid it out of fear.
James: “It is like a general informing his soldiers that it is better to keep out of battle forever than to risk a single wound”.
Essentially, non-belief is a way of avoiding belief in falsehood. Who’d want to believe in falsehood? But, James argues this is no excuse. You’re not living if you choose this route.
But the fear of believing falsehoods has its upsides: “The most useful investigator, because the most sensitive observer, is always he who’s eager interest in one side of the question is balanced by an equally keen nervousness lest he become deceived”. But the scientific method has “fallen so deeply in love” with the latter that it has forgot its duty to the former.
“Moral questions immediately present themselves as questions whose solution cannot wait for sensible proof. A moral question is a question not of what sensibly exists, but of what is good, or would be good if it did exist.”
Thus, a moral question cannot provide truth in the manner which the scientific method seek. But does this make a moral question any less important?
James follows by raising some interesting points on personal relationships. If we were to wait for the truth to establish whether a significant other likes us, we would never be liked? Why, because we have to make the sacrifices first, trust someone first, love someone first, in order for them to do the same to us. In relationships, the quality of them to a great extent rests on our ability to make this leap of faith.
“There are, then, cases where a fact cannot come at all unless a preliminary faith exists in its coming.”