William James' defense of belief and faith marked the main points of his lecture entitled The Will to Believe. This philosophical treatise is introduced then followed by ten major sections in order to explain his position. Ultimately James' case for belief defends religion and faith as necessary, even though irrational, modes of understanding. The purpose of this essay is to explore James' work to explain his concept of the relationships between such subjective ideas as faith, belief, rationality and reality. I will conduct this exploration by examining each section of James' work and highlighting the arguments that relate to the themes of James' characterization and eventual defense of religion and faithful attitudes.

Introduction

In the introduction, James relates the importance of his work as it relates to the subjective nature of its audience. The audience is composed of ivy league university students who are members of a philosophy club. The...
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