(June 23, 2018 at 12:24 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: In his essay "The Will to Believe," William James tries to make the point that faith is a genuine means to attain knowledge. To argue his point, he uses the example of a young man who is interested in a woman. The question the young man wants to answer is: "Does she like me?" To answer his query, the young man might conduct all sorts of analyses, but James suggests that the best way to obtain an answer is to begin with faith that she does. Assume she likes you, James advises, and it is more likely that she will. Wallow in skepticism whether she likes you or not--and chances are she won't.
My main concern is that William James' mention of faith is that of a secular nature rather than that of a religious nature. The woman clearly exists, and the argument of faith relies more on the inability to read another person's mind than the religious nature of faith where there is zero evidence for god's existence.
