Final Exam Topic
II. James
5. Toward the end of “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth,” James writes, “The notion of a reality calling on us to 'agree' with it, and that for no reasons, but simply because its claim is 'unconditional' or 'transcendent,' is one that I can make neither head nor tail of.”
Explain Jame’s reasoning in saying this.
6. In “The Will to Believe,” James writes:
“Next, let us call the decision between two hypotheses an option. Options may be of several kinds. They may be-(1) living or dead; (2) forced or avoidable; (3) momentous or trivial; and for our purposes we may call an option a genuine option when it is of the forced, living, and momentous kind.”
Later in the same chapter, he writes about the rationality of different belief-forming strategies, and writes: “a rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those kinds of truth were really there, would be an irrational rule.”
How
does James put these ideas together to argue for the rationality of religious
faith?
7. In “The Will to Believe,” James provides the following example of “precursive faith”:
“Do you like me or not? -- for example. Whether you do or not depends, in countless instances, on whether I meet you half-way, am willing to assume that you must like me, and show you trust and expectation. The previous faith on my part in your liking's existence is in such cases what makes your liking come. But if I stand aloof, and refuse to budge an inch until I have objective evidence ... ten to one your liking never comes.”
James takes this example to show that belief without evidence can be rational. Does it? Explain.