Back to Book

The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

2. Next, if I say to you: "Choose between going out with your umbrella

123 words  |  Chapter 6

or without it," I do not offer you a genuine option, for it is not forced. You can easily avoid it by not going out at all. Similarly, if I say, "Either love me or hate me," "Either call my theory true or call it false," your option is avoidable. You may remain indifferent to me, neither loving nor hating, and you may decline to offer any judgment as to my theory. But if I say, "Either accept this truth or go without it," I put on you a forced option, for there is no standing place outside of the alternative. Every dilemma based on a complete logical disjunction, with no possibility of not choosing, is an option of this forced kind. {4}
Previous Chapter Chapter List Next Chapter

Chapters

1. Chapter 1 2. 152. Objections to chance considered, 153. Determinism 3. 225. When adopted they become social ferments, 226. Messrs. 4. 280. The good and the bad infinite, 284. Negation, 286. 5. 1. A living option is one in which both hypotheses are live ones. If 6. 2. Next, if I say to you: "Choose between going out with your umbrella 7. 3. Finally, if I were Dr. Nansen and proposed to you to join my North 8. 1. We cannot eat our cake and have it; that is, the only real 9. 2. A chasm is not a bridge in any utilizable sense; that is, no mere 10. 3. The continua, time, space, and the ego, are bridges, because they 11. 4. But they bridge over the chasms between represented qualities only 12. 5. This partial bridging, however, makes the qualities share in a 13. 7. But the same quality appears in many times and spaces. Generic 14. 8. What between different qualities jolts remain. {294} Each, as far 15. 9. The moral judgment may lead us to postulate as irreducible the 16. 10. Elements mutually contingent are not in conflict so long as they 17. 11. That there are such real conflicts, irreducible to any

Reading Tips

Use arrow keys to navigate

Press 'N' for next chapter

Press 'P' for previous chapter