♣ Eight of Clubs
the moral, experiential and pragmatic family
The Will to Believe
William James
The Will to Believe (The Will to Believe and Other Essays)
ConjecturalConcludes what we are warranted in believing or doing.
- Argument form
- Modus tollens (a rule forbidding the belief would be irrational; so no rational rule forbids it)
- Concludes to
- Belief permitted (belief in the religious hypothesis is lawful for one to whom it is a living option)
- Premise ground
- Normative (a rule forbidding belief until evidence that belief alone makes available would forbid a truth, and is irrational)
- Modal strength
- None (warrant for belief)
- What it licenses
- Period
- Nineteenth Century (1896)
- Tradition
- Pragmatist
Further reading
- Source text, public domain
The Will to Believethewilltobelieve00jameuoft.pdf - A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument - A principal objection
Read the objection in full
This formulation is ours, composed from the primary source and compressed to fit the card; the argument admits of other statements. Objections have been made to every argument in the deck; where one is linked above, it is chosen by us, not written by us.
ergocards.com/will-to-believe
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