Practical considerations and evidence in James's permission to believe

摘要: Philosophers often read ‘The will to believe’ as defending the substitution of non-epistemic reasons for inadequate epistemic reasons. I contend that a more charitable reading James's argument is understand him proposing contextualist account kind evidence needed responsible believing. On my reading, James claims evidential support might be insufficient in purely theoretical context may good enough when there pressing need decide on course action.