Will to Believe: and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

Born in New York City in 1842, William James spent his first thirteen years there, where he was privately educated. James attended schools in Geneva, Paris, and Bologne-sur-Mer--from 1855 to 1858. Like his equally famous brother, the novelist Henry James, William James was attracted to the arts. However, he abandoned the study of art in favor of medicine and eventually philosophy.

These classic essays address concerns of religious faith from a philosophical perspective. "The Will to Believe" is a defense of the legitimacy of religious faith-though not as a defense of the validity of such faith. James responds to the often corrosive effect of rationality on religious faith by arguing that it is most rational to choose faith. He continues his argument in "Human Immortality," demonstrating that it is legitimate to believe in immortality to satisfy a spiritual need because, though science does not prove it, it also does not exclude its possibility. However, these essays can still "break up and ventilate" faiths too easily formed, too tightly held, whether those "faiths" come in the form of academic, religious, or other dogmas.