5.08.2008

William James is Super Sonic

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
-William James


Interesting Wikipedia Excerpt:
"The Will to Believe"
is the title of William James's classic lecture (published in 1897) defending the adoption of beliefs as hypotheses and self-fulfilling prophecies even without prior evidence of their truth...
James argues that beliefs like
God, freewill, possibility, and morality would cause evidence to come, thus verifying beliefs that could not have been verified otherwise. James' rationale for this more controversial idea is in combining it with his pragmatic theory of truth, the idea that a belief is verified if it causes better interaction with the world. For example, while no evidence can justify the initial adoption of a belief in God, the adoption of such a belief as a hypothesis without evidence would cause one to succeed better in the world, thus verifying the belief. This does not entail that it will be verified for everyone, but rather, for many, that it would cause their lives to be better, thus making it true for them.

Dance naked to your favorite song today - it's a blast ;)....mid jiggle, think about what hypotheses are true for your life...