Anne Zagursky-The Will to Believe

Pasional Tendencies
In William James' essay, "The Will to Believe", he discusses the person's ability to choose or will faith into existence. He notes that a person is born with certain dispositions or tendencies that get a person to act upon those tendencies in different ways. Some people have the tendency to beleive things in order to know the truth whereas others believe things in order to not be wrong. The first tendency tends to allow people to be more open to other opnions and views and are more likely to change their views if they think the truth is somewhere else. The second is not interested in the truth but only in keeping their beliefs in tact. They are often close-minded and absolutist.

James believes that people have the ability to choose faith through options or hypotheses available to them.He says that there are three hypotheses for belief that dictate the importance or relevance of the option. The first kind of option is the living or dead option. In this type of belief a person may face options that are not even conceivable to them. For example, a person might be asked to choose between beets and radishes, but they, in reality do not want or like either. This option is dead to them. On the other hand a Christian might be asked to believe in Catholicism or Protestantism. These are two valid options for the Christian which makes it a live option.

Another kind of option is that of the avoidable or forced option. In the forced option, a person is asked a question that only leaves them two options. For example, a person might be told to either accept the universe in a religious way or not. There does not seem to be any third option or way out. Even if the person says they will choose neither, that goes with the “not”. In an avoidable option, there is a third or alternative choice. In the final set of options, James proposes the idea of momentous and trivial options. Momentous options are ones that are importance to the existence of a person. These options are things like moral questions, religion, and personal relationships. Momentous options are not reversible or impact the person’s life in a great way. Once a person chooses something like a religion, the rest of their life is impacted and dictated by that decision. This belief is momentous because it changes their life and creates new options and choices. People all face these kinds of decisions and to James it seems that that makes the belief in religion very important and logical.