PREVIEW-Episode 22: More James’s Pragmatism: Is Faith Justified? What is Truth?
Summary: On William James's "The Will to Believe" and continuing our discussion from <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/06/09/episode-20-pragmatism-peirce-and-james-2/" target="_blank">Episode 20</a> on James's conception of truth as described in his books Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth, again including Dylan Casey.<br> This is a 31-minute preview of our vintage 1 hr, 38-minute episode which you can buy at <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/product/ep-22-more-jamess-pragmatism-faith-truth/" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/store</a> or <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/07/18/ep22-james-citizen/" target="_blank">get for free</a> with PEL Citizenship (see <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership</a>). You can also purchase the full episode in the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/episode-22-more-jamess-pragmatism/id884110509" target="_blank">iTunes Store</a>: Search for "Partially Examined Pragmatism faith" and look under "Albums."<br> Does pragmatism give ground for religious belief, like if I say it feels good for me to believe in God, is that in any sense a legitimate grounds for that belief? Is belief in science or rationality itself a form of faith? Is religious belief a "forced choice," or does it just not matter what you believe?<br> Also, we sort further through James on truth: truth is created by us, but what does that mean? That only statements actually verified or otherwise useful are true, or can have a truth value (true of false) at all? In saying that we create truth, does that make James a relativist, and if so, is that bad?<br> Read "<a href="http://falcon.jmu.edu/~omearawm/ph101willtobelieve.html" target="_blank">The Will to Believe</a>," <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5116" target="_blank">Pragmatism</a>, and <a href="http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/James/James_1911/James_1911_toc.html" target="_blank">The Meaning of Truth</a> (the most useful chapters for our purposes are 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, and 15).<br> You can alternately "The Will to Believe" <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147017961X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=147017961X&linkCode=as2&tag=theparexalif-20&linkId=EKSTHD2XM23TXDGK" target="_blank">here</a>, and the other two books are packaged <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674697375/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674697375&linkCode=as2&tag=theparexalif-20&linkId=45FKENOJNLZGPDXZ" target="_blank">in this volume</a>.<br> End song: "Who Cares What You Believe?" by <a href="http://marklint.com/madisonlint.htm" target="_blank">Madison Lint</a> (2001).<br>
