(March 30, 2015 at 2:50 am)Nestor Wrote: Nice. James also, as far as I understand, only advocated "the will" or "the right" to believe in instances where the intellect cannot decide which option is more correct (I don't agree here anyway, btw), and while I haven't read his lecture specifically concerned with "the moral life," I'm pretty sure he wouldn't include an act of murder in the class of propositions of which we have insufficient data to determine its value or correctness, or lack thereof.
You need to read the essays at the link. His position most certainly does lead to the potential to believe things that lead to murder. Indeed, the whole point of his essay "The Will to Believe" is to allow people to believe in Christianity, even with no evidence. And, as everyone knows who has any knowledge of the history of Christianity, people have killed each other over such things, based on the beliefs that they had on faith.
Read the essays, and you will see.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
