Evidentialism and the Will to Believe [Paperback]

Work on the norms of belief in epistemology regularly starts with two touchstone essays: W.K. Clifford's The Ethics of Belief and William James's The Will to Believe. Discussing the central themes from these seminal essays,Evidentialism and the Will to Believeexplores the history of the ideas governing evidentialism.

As well as Clifford's argument from the examples of the shipowner, the consequences of credulity and his defence against skepticism, this book tackles James's conditions for a genuine option and the structure of the will to believe case as a counter-example to Clifford's evidentialism. Exploring the question of whether James's case successfully counters Clifford's evidentialist rule for belief, this study captures the debate between those who hold that one should proportion belief to evidence and those who hold that the evidentialist norm is too restrictive.

More than a sustained explication of the essays, it also surveys recent epistemological arguments to evidentialism. But it is by bringing Clifford and James into fruitful conversation for the first time that this study presents a clearer history of the issues and provides an important reconstruction of the notion of evidence in contemporary epistemology.

Acknowledgments
Copyright Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The objectives of commentary
2. Three themes
3. Five evaluative theses
Chapter 1: Reading Clifford's The Ethics of Belief
William Kingdon Clifford and the Metaphysical Society
Section I  The Duty of Inquiry
1. The ship owner case
2. The island case
3. Beliefs and actions
4. Beliefs and their consequences
5. Ethics and belief
6. Endorsing evidentialism
Section II  The Weight of Authority
1. Anti-skepticism
2. Testimonial evidence
3. Miraculous testimony
4. The publicity requirement
5. The sacred tral#+