[Review of the book William James on Radical Empiricism and Religion, by H. Brown]

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Welchman, Jennifer

• Introduction: The title of Hunter Brown's book, while not wholly inaccurate, barely hints at the book's real object: defense of William James' famous paper, \"The Will to Believe.\" For clarity's sake, a better title might have been \"The Will to Believe\" as an Introduction to James on Radical Empiricism and Religion. Because Brown sees objections to \"The Will to Believe\" as grounded in what he considers misreadings of James' epistemology and philosophy of religion, Brown's apologia introduces his readers to some of the broader issues the essay raises for James' empiricism and theism. It is an introduction one can heartily recommend to readers whose prior acquaintance with James is limited to the few essays most often reprinted in philosophical anthologies. There is more in James' radical empiricism and philosophy of religion than is dreamt of in \" The Will to Believe\" and the chief merit of Brown's book is how effectively this is conveyed.

• Date created

  2004

• Subjects / Keywords

  • James, William
  • Book Reviews
  • Philosophy
  • Epistemology

• Type of Item

  Review

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PV6BN4J

• License

  © 2004 Indiana University Press. This article was published as \"Jennifer Welchman. Reviewed Work(s): William James on Radical Empiricism and Religion by Hunter Brown. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society Vol. 40, No. 3 (Summer, 2004), pp. 543-546.\" No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or distributed in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Indiana University Press. For education reuse, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center <http://www.copyright.com/>. For all other permissions, contact IU Press at <http://iupress.indiana.edu/rights/>.