|
THE ETHICS OF BELIEF
The Ethics of Belief
Edited by A.J. Burger
Essays by
William Kingdon Clifford
William James
A.J. Burger
Copyright © 1997, 2001, 2008 by A.J. Burger. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
Preface
The Ethics of Belief
William Kingdon Clifford
The Will to Believe
William James
An Examination of The Will to Believe
A.J. Burger
Preface
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 Cliffords
Lectures and Essays is no longer in print, there is a need
for the present book. Indeed, usually the excerpts from Cliffords
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 Cliffords 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 faiththat 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 Cliffords and James essays, reprinted in
their entirety, in one convenient book, should prove worthwhile.
About the Text
of the printed book
The text of William Kingdon
Cliffords 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.
About the Text
at this website
The text of William Kingdon
Cliffords 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.
About the REVISED EDITION
printed book only
The Revised Edition of the
book has an Afterword added in 2008.
Footnote
{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 Scribners 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}
Send email to the editor.
A.J. Burger
ajburger@rocketmail.com
Copyright © 1997, 2001, 2008 by A.J. Burger. All rights reserved.
|