Can We Secularize the Will to Believe?

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Stéphane Madelrieux
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/3
Language English Pages 20 P. 493-512 File size 22207 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2017-003008
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This paper reconsiders the case of William James’s « will to believe », often taken to be only as a defense of the legitimacy of religious faith against such free-believers as William Clifford. It shows that the will to believe has no necessary relation with theism as it is only a very general method to solve philosophical dilemmas. This method is conceived to be applicable to every kind of topics where such dilemmas occur, such as the traditional antinomy between freedom and determinism. The main stake of this interpretation is to defend the general idea that pragmatism at large should primarily be understood not as a doctrine but as a method and even as an attitude. The virtue of such an understanding is to enable us to correct the doctrines of past pragmatists when they seem to contravene the pragmatist attitude. This paper ends up by presenting such a revision, as it claims pragmatist reasons for favoring an atheistic conclusion from the application of the will to believe-method.

Keywords: William James, Will to Believe, Pragmatism, atheism, philosophical method, freedom.

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  • John Dewey face aux fondamentalismes. Les origines des discours « post-séculiers » et leur antidote Joan Stavo-Debauge, (ISBN:9782384510436)
  • Ethics at the Crossroads: Replies to Koopman, Livingston, and Slater Sarin Marchetti, in Contemporary Pragmatism /2022 pp.68
    DOI: 10.1163/18758185-bja10032

Stéphane Madelrieux, Can We Secularize the Will to Believe? in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 3/2017, pp 493-512, DOI: 10.3280/SF2017-003008