The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy.

JAMES, William.

Published by Longmans Green and Co., New York, 1897

About this Item

Half title with publisher's list of James' works on the verso + TP + [v] = Dedication + [vii]-xiv = Preface + [xv]-xvii =Contents + [1]-332 + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. First Edition, First Printing (McDermott 1897-3).James Eloquent and Important Defense of "Our Right to Adopt a Believing Attitude in Religious Matters" This, his first overtly piece of philosophical writing, is seminal for any understanding of William James' thought. Here he famously defends religious beliefs because of their beneficial effects on believers. A popular collection, these nine essays - written between 1879 and 1896 - were first published in an edition of 1,000 copies in March of 1897 and had to be reprinted twice that same year and many times thereafter. (See James, Will to Believe, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 307-8)Many of James's most important and innovative contributions are developed in this early book - including his advocacy of pluralism and what he calls in the Preface "radical empiricism". The book clearly illustrates James's efforts to weave together insights from psychology, philosophy, and religion without great regard for the growing and narrowing lines of professional specialization and shows, in the wake of the "The Principles of Psychology, his increasing interest in religious questions.In that sense alone, this book must be read as a major precursor and prelude to his monumental Varieties of Religious Experience - which was published just five years later. In the opening controversial and most famous essay, "The Will to Believe", (which James admitted, might better have been called "The Right to Believe") is "a defence of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logical intellect may not have been coerced." Driven by his fierce rejection of W.K. Clifford's statement that "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence," James spends most of this essay challenging and then dismissing this very limited 'scientific' approach to truth, knowledge and belief and defending the right to adopt a belief that might prove beneficial. In general, James makes a place for and shows the importance to life for a belief in transcendent reality and he does so, pointedly, without endorsing any specific religious creed. (See Richardson, William James in the Maelstrom of American Modernism, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 361-365 for more details on this book.)Of special note, James dedicated this book to Charles Sanders Peirce of whom he says: "To My Old Friend, Charles Saunders[sic] Peirce, To whose philosophic comradeship in old times and to whose writings in more recent years I owe more incitement and help than I can express or repay." The ever crusty Charles Peirce would soon dismiss William James' brand of "pragmatism" and lobby for his own understanding of that philosophical approach which he labelled "pragmaticism." Original publisher's green cloth with a 2½" high paper label to the spine, The spine label is sun-darkened - but remains 100% readable. A former owner's signature ("H. E. Winner") has been written the lower right corner to the back of the front cover. Other than those minor issues, this is an amazingly well-preserved - clean, tight and bright - copy of this important and scarce book by James. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Seller Inventory # 1467

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Will to Believe and Other Essays in ...

Publisher: Longmans Green and Co., New York

Publication Date: 1897

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING.