Evidentialism and the Will to Believe

Work on the norms of belief in epistemology regularly starts with two touchstone essays: W.K. Clifford's "The Ethics of Belief" and William James's "The Will to Believe." Discussing the central themes from these seminal essays, Evidentialism and the Will to Believe explores the history of the ideas governing evidentialism.

As well as Clifford's argument from the examples of the shipowner, the consequences of credulity and his defence against skepticism, this book tackles James's conditions for a genuine option and the structure of the will to believe case as a counter-example to Clifford's evidentialism. Exploring the question of whether James's case successfully counters Clifford's evidentialist rule for belief, this study captures the debate between those who hold that one should proportion belief to evidence and those who hold that the evidentialist norm is too restrictive.

More than a sustained explication of the essays, it also surveys recent epistemological arguments to evidentialism. But it is by bringing Clifford and James into fruitful conversation for the first time that this study presents a clearer history of the issues and provides an important reconstruction of the notion of evidence in contemporary epistemology.

Autorentext

Scott Aikin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, USA.

Inhalt

*Acknowledgments
Copyright Acknowledgments*
Introduction

1. The objectives of commentary
2. Three themes
3. Five evaluative theses
   Chapter 1: Reading Clifford's "The Ethics of Belief"
   William Kingdon Clifford and the Metaphysical Society
   Section I - The Duty of Inquiry
   *1. The ship owner case
4. The island case
5. Beliefs and actions
6. Beliefs and their consequences
7. Ethics and belief
8. Endorsing evidentialism*
   Section II - The Weight of Authority
   *1. Anti-skepticism
9. Testimonial evidence
10. Miraculous testimony
11. The publicity requirement
12. The sacred tradition of humanity*
    Section III - The Limits of Inference
    *1. A burnt child dreads the fire
13. Regulative principles
14. Three norms*
    Chapter 2: Reading James's "The Will to Believe"
    William James and "The Will to Believe"
    Preamble
    Section I - Hypotheses and Options
    *1. Introduction and definitions
15. Live and dead options
16. Forced options
17. Momentous options
18. Religion as a genuine option*
    Section II - Pascal's Wager
    *1. Four stages of "The Will to Believe"
19. Voluntarism and its limits
20. The wager
21. Clifford's veto*
    Section III - Psychological Causes of Belief
    *1. A concession to evidentialism
22. Truth and other useful ideas
23. Pascal is a regular clincher*
    Section IV - The Thesis of the Essay
    *1. A thematic transition
24. The thesis*
    Sections V and VI - Absolutism and Empiricism
    *1. Two forms of faith
25. Objective evidence and its discontents
26. Truth for Empricism*
    Section VII - Two Different Sorts of Risks in Believing
    *1. The two commandments
27. The case for the Truth Norm
28. Two critical points*
    Section VIII - Some Risk Unavoidable
    *1. Applying the meta-epistemology
29. Interested inquiry
30. Two analogies*
    Section IX - Faith May Bring Forth Its Own Verification
    *1. Moral and scientific questions
31. Moral skepticism
32. The argument from friendship
33. The argument from social coordination
34. Doxastic efficacy and the will-to-believe*
    Section X - Logical Conditions of Religious Belief
    *1. The overall form of James's argument
35. Religion's dual essence
36. Religion as live and momentous
37. Religion as forced
38. The conversion fallacy
39. Religion as doxastically efficacious
40. Evidentialism as irrational
41. Religious tolerance*
    Chapter 3: The Ethics of Belief and Philosophy of Religion
    Question 1: Must evidentialism be an ethical doctrine?
    Question 2: Can practical reasons trump theoretical reasons?
    Question 3: Can religion be pragmatically reconstructed?
    Question 4: What about the power of positive thinking?

*Bibliography
Index