religion 17
- On such ultimate questions faith, not logic, decides, and logic has no right to veto faith
- On pragmatist principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily, it is true
William James
American philosopher and psychologist (1842 to 1910); studied at Harvard; author of The Principles of Psychology (1890), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Pragmatism (1907).
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What William James says most about
agency 5
- In knowing as in acting, people are creative and add to reality
- Theories are instruments for moving forward, not answers to rest in
mental models 5
- In a real world of sweat and dirt, a noble view of things seemingly ought to count against its truth
- Our basic ways of thinking are discoveries of remote ancestors that have persisted ever since
optimism 5
- Pragmatism must lean toward meliorism, since some conditions of the world's salvation already exist
- Healthy-minded optimism is inadequate as a philosophy, because the evil it ignores is part of reality and may be the key to life's meaning
humility 4
- Building ethics around the question of merit is unrealistic
- Common sense, science and philosophy each suit a different sphere, none known to be truer absolutely
consciousness 3
- No account of the universe can be final if it disregards forms of consciousness other than the ordinary one
- Ordinary waking consciousness is only one type of consciousness, surrounded by entirely different potential forms
creativity 2
- Free will means real novelty: the future may not simply repeat the past
- In knowing as in acting, people are creative and add to reality
happiness 2
- Errors are not so solemn; lightness of heart beats excessive fear of being wrong
- Conversion is the process by which a divided, unhappy self becomes unified and happy through a firmer hold on religious realities
physics 2
- Human experience as a whole, as I see it, points beyond narrow 'scientific' bounds; the real world is more intricately built than physical science allows
- There can be no final truth in ethics until the last person has had their say