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A Philosophical Look Into Religion And Freewill In The Light Of James William
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William James was a New York born pragmatic philosopher. He started from
physiology to psychology and finally to philosophy. However, just like
other philosophers did not philosophize in isolation; his contemporaries
include: Charles Sanders Pierce and John Dewey. They are known as
classical pragmatists. Moreover, we may not be able to understand
William James unless we are at home with his pragmatic theory, which
serves as a gate way to all other of his philosophy.
This word
pragmatism has a rich evolution; Pierce derived the word from Kant’s
usage of German word “pragmatischâ€. He then applied it to an empirical
condition which was founded by three American philosophers Charles
Sanders Pierce, William James and John Dewey. Three of them fought to
save philosophy from metaphysical idealism, and equally save religious
and moral ideals from empiricist, positivist scepticism. However, the
three classical pragmatists had very different philosophical concerns,
though they still share one foundation, and that is pragmatism. This
their pragmatic theory manifested in every of their philosophical
endeavour, that is why James who was more interested in religion said
that a belief in God is at least practically verified if it provides
comfort to the believer, the satisfactory consequence of holding the
belief as well as of the proposition believed are to constitute
verification6
Pragmatism concerns itself with purposeful action and
the interplay of theory and practice. It stresses on what James called
cash value of beliefs. In all, pragmatism can be defined as: a
philosophy that attempts to apply the methods of science to philosophy,
its central idea is that the meaning and truth of an idea are determined
by the idea’s effect in practice and conduct.7
Having gathered some
indebt knowledge to what I am going to examine, let me then stipulate
the pattern the long essay will take. This work is composed of four
major chapters. The chapter one includes the following; Introduction,
statement of problem, purpose of studies, scope of study and
methodology. Chapter two will be applied in exposing the nature and
notion of religion and freewill, their origin, their characteristic
features and their functions. The third chapter will be a critical
analysis of the religious experience, Mystical experience as a base for
belief about God, problem of religious experience, William James
pragmatic religious experience, and William James pragmatic verdict.
Having gone thus far, the chapter four will be a critical evaluation and
conclusion.
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