Assess the views and main conclusions of William James - RE Flashcards
INTRO - define
It is not important that RE are not verifiable what matters are the effects. If the effects are genuine and important to the person then it is self-verifiable and we should accept this as truth
Section 1: theme
James Criteria
Section 1: AO1
CRITERIA
James identified four characteristics that he suggested were shared by all genuine religious experience: PINT
CONVERSION: Often an experience in which a person alters their life from one set of convictions to another suggests the RE profoundly affects a person.
e.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus
Section 1: AO2 FOR
CRITERIA
James RE are ‘passive’ – has not been willed by the individual contrary to the assertions made by the likes of Freud. Equally experiences are ineffable, meaning the recipient cannot articulate their feeling of the transcendent or divine
Noetic Quality: contravene the statement that RE are illusions ‘good disposition’ of the knowledge revealed points to ‘something larger’ (OTTO)
Section 1: AO2 AGAINST
CRITERIA
The psychological challenge - Freud its chief proponent - asserts that religious experiences are no more than illusions constructed by the psyche most fundamentally to satisfy neuroses
Leary: recorded experiences of LSD users and those who claimed that they had RE and the results were neatly indistinguishable from each other
Section 2: theme
James’ pragmatism
Section 2: AO1
PRAGMATISM
Pragmatism
-Philosophical view of epistemology which states that if something is good for us, that is evidence of its truth
Most interested in effects for validity i.e alcoholic not being able to give up alcohol till RE
-Must have been effected by some higher power
Section 2: AO2 FOR
PRAGMATISM
ST Theresa of Avilla -being a nun with a lethal illness and seeing visions of the divine, gave her a closer understanding to God and strengthened her theist faith
PINT CRITERIA - Whilst St Theresa was ill, she started to lose her sense of faith with the divine However after her visons she began deep reflection and contemplation and found love for God once again, that one may argue, gave her the strength to live on
Section 2: AO2 AGAINST
PRAGMATISM
Some mystic experiences could be lifechanging to fit certain beliefs e.g. if a theist hallucinated an angel – life changing
However, this experience may seem incredible as St Theresa of Avilla was very ill. A scientist or psychologist could evidently postulate how her visons were merely hallucinations brought on by her severe illness
will
Section 3: theme
Impact on the individual
Section 3: AO1
IMPACT
Yet ultimately it must be argued that the epistemological problem of other minds means one cannot prove nor disprove the validity of a religious experience; instead, experiences should be judged in accordance to their impacts and value for the individual, thereby making conversion possibly the most convincing form of religious experience.
Section 3: AO2 FOR
IMPACT
Wittgenstein’s notion of “seeing-as” in his ‘Philosophical Investigations’ has been developed by John Hick to explain how people interpret the same things in different ways, demonstrated by the duck-rabbit picture.
John hick uses the phrase “experiencing as” to demonstrate that the world and everything in it can be experienced in different ways - ultimately the veridicality of religious experiences is not something anyone other than the experiencer can comment on.
How can corporate experiences be commented on as more or less valid than individual
Section 3: AO2 AGAINST
IMPACT
Most religious experiences fit into the culture of the person’s worship - religious people are predisposed to religious experiences, attracted to the unusual and the bizarre, people search for conversions!
