Monday, January 23, 2006 PHL 105Y

1
Monday, January 23, 2006PHL 105Y

• For Monday, read William James What Pragmatism
  Means, and The Pragmatic Notion of Truth (pp.
  120-134 in the Pojman)
• Its Election Day. In the last federal election,
  38 of citizens 18-21 years old voted (vs. 61
  average across all age groups.) For information
  on where to vote, check www.elections.ca
• For tutorial this Friday, answer one of the
  following questions
• How does James argue for the notion that (p.127)
  truth is one species of good?
• James says that what is better for us to believe
  is true unless the belief incidentally clashes
  with some other vital benefits. (127, see also
  134) Does he really need that italicized
  qualification? Why or why not?

2
William James (1842-1910)

• The Will to Believe
• Published 1897 originally delivered as an
  address
• to the Philosophy Clubs at Yale and Brown, 1896

3
Living and dead hypotheses

• Hypothesis anything that someone could identify
  as a candidate for belief
• A live hypothesis looks like a real possibility
  to him to whom it is proposed

4
Living and dead hypotheses

• A live hypothesis appeals as a real possibility
  to him to whom it is proposed
• Whether a hypothesis is dead or alive isnt a
  fact built into the hypothesis itself, but
  depends on its relation to a thinker
• Example (for you) Iceland has a better claim
  than Denmark on the disputed issue of the Faroe
  Island continental shelf boundary.

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Living and dead hypotheses

• What is dead for you may be alive for someone
  else
• Whether a hypothesis is alive for you is measured
  by your willingness to act (and the most alive
  hypotheses are those on which well act
  irrevocably)

6
Options

• An option is the choice between two hypotheses
• Options may be
• living (when both hypothesis are live) or dead
• forced (when you must choose) or avoidable (when
  you can choose something else, or avoid choosing)
• momentous or trivial

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Genuine Options

• An option is the choice between two hypotheses a
  genuine option is living, forced and momentous
• Options may be
• living (when both hypothesis are live) or dead
• forced (when you must choose) or avoidable (when
  you can choose something else, or avoid choosing)
• momentous or trivial

8
What controls belief?

• James wants to figure out the extent to which our
  beliefs are decided by our intellect or by what
  he calls our passional nature
• At one level, it looks absurd to say that you can
  set your beliefs at will can you will yourself
  to believe that the Green Party will win todays
  election?

9
For many beliefs, the will cannot make a
difference

• Does the CN Tower really exist?
• Does 11100?
• For many such beliefs, James argues that whatever
  we can say to ourselves, we cant just choose to
  believe them here the will is impotent
• (What kind of beliefs are in this category? Are
  they the same for everyone?)

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Pascals WagerChoosing to believe?

• The Wager involves a basic principle of game
  theory
• The value of a bet is the product of the payoff
  and your odds of winning it
• So the value of a 10 chance at winning 550 is
  55 the value of a 3 chance at winning 1000 is
  30, and so on

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Pascals Wager

• 1. You can either believe in God or not.
• 2. Either God does or does not exist.

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Pascals Wager

• 1. You can either believe in God or not.
• 2. Either God does or does not exist.
• So, there are four possibilities
• You believe in God and God exists.
• You believe in God and God does not exist.
• You dont believe in God and God exists.
• You dont believe in God and God does not exist.

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Pascals Wager

• The payoffs
• You believe in God and God exists. (infinite
  gain)
• You believe in God and God does not exist. (some
  time wasted praying, etc.)
• You dont believe in God and God exists. (nothing
  gained, perhaps heavy losses, but Pascal doesnt
  need to argue that there will be losses to get
  his desired conclusion)
• You dont believe in God and God does not exist.
  (nothing gained or lost)
• Pascals conclusion even a small chance of
  infinite gain is worth it the rational thing is
  to decide to believe in God.

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James on the Wager

• What does James think of Pascals Wager?
• Why is it a problem that exactly the same
  reasoning could be used to compel belief in the
  Mahdi?
• Is the Wager a purely rational way to convert
  someone to Catholicism?

15
W.K. Cliffords warning

• It is wrong, always, everywhere, and for every
  one, to believe anything upon insufficient
  evidence. (115)

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The role of will

• You cant will yourself to believe a dead
  hypothesis

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The role of will

• You cant will yourself to believe a dead
  hypothesis
• But what makes a hypothesis dead for you is
  usually some prior act of your willing nature
  (where this covers not just deliberate acts of
  will, but also emotions and prejudices, taste,
  passion, inclination)

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The role of will

• The range of hypotheses that are live options for
  us is set not by intellect but by emotions and
  prejudices, taste, passion, inclination we are
  moved by the prestige of opinions rather than by
  their sheer intellectual merits
• Insight and logic, whatever they might do
  ideally, are not the only things that really do
  produce our beliefs
• If true, is this a good thing, or is it
  disturbing?

19
The intellect

• Passion can assist us in enquiry James sees the
  scientific method as driven by urgent desires to
  verify and destroy hypotheses
• But the scientists passion does not dictate
  whether to accept or reject any given claim, and
  James thinks that where there is no forced
  option, ideal beliefs are formed by the intellect
• So which options are forced?

20
Forced options

• Moral options are forced (why?)
• Questions concerning whom one likes are forced
• The question of religious belief is forced (and
  momentous)

21
Jamess Thesis

• Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but
  must, decide an option between propositions
  whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by
  its nature be decided on intellectual grounds
  for to say, under such circumstances, 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 (116)

22
The will to believe

• freedom to believe can only cover living
  options which the intellect of the individual
  cannot by itself resolve... (119)
• Does James think that the intellect on its own
  cannot resolve the question of religious belief?

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The will to believe

• freedom to believe can only cover living
  options which the intellect of the individual
  cannot by itself resolve... (119)
• Does James think that the intellect on its own
  cannot resolve the question of religious belief?
• He thinks that it is part of his empiricism that
  we will not know the truth of such questions with
  certainty we could suspend judgment, but that
  would mean giving up on religion

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Intellectualism or Pragmatism?

• Pure intellectualism would rule out as
  irrational any belief adopted on the basis of
  passion or will James seems to think that the
  intellectualist will not be a religious believer
  some exercise of will is called for in the
  adoption of religious belief.
• (Why might someone think so?)