Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, October 27, 2016

(H1)

This episode of Crash Course Philosophy talks about William James. He's a little more than halfway through the video.

It's neat because it talks about William James' conditions for belief without evidence. He still thought that if evidence exists, you should look for it. That seems to refute Russell's Columbus example. There is evidence Columbus sailed in 1492, so I feel like James would still think believing otherwise would be irresponsible.

 I really liked his idea of live, forced, and momentous beliefs. And while I do believe that religion is not entirely a forced belief like James insisted (that is, I agree with Russell that there are more options than complete belief and complete disbelief), I think that set of criteria is a pretty good one.

The philosopher discussed first in the video, W. K. Clifford, says there is no such thing as a private belief. We all affect one another with our words, with our actions. It's scary, but neat.

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