William James’s Uncertain Universe
Oxford University Press eBooks December 3, 2010 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370928.003.0005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Darwin's probabilistic thinking influenced James's Varieties, where conversion is central to his psychology of religious experience and pragmatism. Proposes that James characterizes conversion as the gap between fact and interpretation, anchoring belief formation in discourse and communities, with empirical method as "founded in feeling." |
Abstract
Chapter 4 examines the impact that Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and its demonstration of probabilistic thinking had on William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (Varieties) and demonstrates the central role the conversion dynamic plays in James’s work, focusing on his development of a psychology of religious experience in the Varieties and of pragmatism as a philosophy whose claim that “truth is what happens to an idea” affirms the process of belief as conversional. Conversion finds a conceptual home in modern philosophy as James’s pragmatic hermeneutic, a habit of mind tying conversion to the process that drives consciousness. James characterizes conversion as the experience of the gap between a fact and its interpretation responsible for the ongoing work of establishing beliefs in the face of uncertainty. Through the gathering and arranging of countless testimonies in the Varieties James anchors the process of conversion and the constituting and reconstituting of beliefs and bodies of knowledge in discourse and various discursive communities. In doing so he foregrounds an individual’s continual efforts at reaching these “stages” of personal and cultural renewal through the adoption of the empirical method, which he claims encompasses all scientific and religious enquiries and is “founded in feeling.”