The Ethics of Belief
Preface
The Ethics of Belief
William Kingdon Clifford
The Will to Believe
William James
An Examination of ‘The Will to Believe’
A.J. Burger
People have long been interested
in the circumstances under which it is appropriate to believe. Often,
the source of this interest is the desire to believe something for which
one has insufficient evidence. Extensive excerpts of
the following essays by William Kingdon Clifford and William James are
often reprinted in anthologies. This is sufficient proof of the enduring interest
in this subject, and of the importance of these particular essays.
But since they are excerpts, and since Clifford’s
Lectures and Essays is no longer in print, there is a need
for the present book. Indeed, usually the excerpts from Clifford’s
essay come exclusively from part one of his three-part
essay. And James’ essay is usually reprinted without parts II, III,
V, VI, and VII, with the other parts not reprinted in their entirety.
Following are “The Ethics of Belief” and “The Will to Believe” in their
entirety, along with added explanatory notes. Following these essays
is “An Examination of ‘The Will to Believe.’” It is not the first
examination of that work;{1}
however, it is, I believe, one that adds a unique contribution to the discussion. The
reader is advised to read the essays in the order presented here (which
is the order in which they were written), as James’ essay is a response
to Clifford’s essay, as well as to ideas of a like nature; and my own essay is a
response to James’ essay.
It is to be hoped that the
present volume will be useful to anyone interested in the question of whether
it is appropriate to have faith–that is, believe in the absence
of evidence. Indeed, even if my own essay is not as useful as I believe
it to be, the availability of Clifford’s and James’ essays, reprinted in
their entirety, in one convenient book, should prove worthwhile.
-
A.J. Burger
- September 2001
The text of William Kingdon Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” is based upon the first edition of Lectures and Essays, Macmillan and Co., 1879, edited by Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock. The text of William James’ “The Will to Believe” is based upon the first edition of The Will to Believe and other essays in popular philosophy, Longmans, Green & Co., 1897. In the essays by Clifford and James, the added footnotes are indicated by “–AJB”. This is the first printing of “An Examination of ‘The Will to Believe,’” which was originally written in 1994, and has been subsequently revised.
The text of William Kingdon
Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” is based upon the second edition of Lectures
and Essays, Macmillan and Co., 1886, edited by Leslie Stephen and Frederick
Pollock. The text of William James’ “The Will to Believe” is based
upon the Dover reprint of The Will to Believe and other essays in popular
philosophy, which is said to be “an unabridged and unaltered republication
of the first edition” printed by Longmans, Green & Co. in 1897, as
I was unable to obtain an original when this was first put on the internet in 1997.
My essay, however, has been updated.
{1} See, for example, A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (Simon & Schuster, 1945), ch. XXIX, particularly p 814-816; and “The Dark Side of Religion” in The Faith of a Liberal by Morris R. Cohen (Henry Holt, 1946), a relevant section of which is also reprinted as “Religion and the Will to Believe” in Introductory Readings in Philosophy, Marcus G. Singer and Robert R. Ammerman, eds. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962), p 231-234, and also as “A Critique of the Will to Believe” in Decisions in Philosophy of Religion, William B. Williamson, ed. (Prometheus Books, 1985), p 125-128. {return}
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A.J. Burger ajburger@rocketmail.com
Copyright © 1997, 2001 by A.J. Burger. All rights reserved.
