PHIL/RS 335
VARIETIES, LECTURES 2 & 3
CHAPTER 2: “CIRCUMSCRIPTION”
• James begins by notion that the variety of
definitions suggests that "religion" denotes not a
single essence, but a collective one.
• To avoid dogmatism, we need to remain open to the
possibility that all we’ll ever get is an enumerative
definition.
• The same can be said for the concept of
“religious sentiment.”
• James once again asserts the continuity of the mental
phenomena of religion with non-religious mental
phenomena (religious awe is a species of awe).
TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF RELIGION
• Despite the lack of a universal definition of these
concepts, progressing in our inquiry demands some
concreteness. James recognizes the necessity to
stipulate a definition that will be operative for these
lectures.
• His first movement towards such a definition is a
contrastive one, dividing the field of religion into two
regions: Institutional and Personal.
•
•
Institutional religion is characterized by the dominance of
ritual, theology and hierarchy which seems to result in an
account of religion as the art of winning the favor of the
divine.
Personal religion is characterized by a focus on the inner
dispositions of believers, doctrines of conscience, and deserts
which supports an account of religion as a specific relationship
between humans and the divine.
A PERSONAL FOCUS
• James makes clear that it is the personal aspect of
religion that he is interested in.
• In response to the criticism that this focus is too
one-sided, James is willing to broaden the inquiry
to encompass "morality," but he still insists on the
specificity and primordiality of the personal
approach (35).
• All institutional religious experiences are based on a
personal one, so the personal is more primordial.
• On p. 36, we get the operative definition.
WHAT ABOUT “THE DIVINE”?
• This definition is not without difficulties, in particular,
the term “divine.”
• As James notes, there are a number of “religions”
which don't include belief in a god (Buddhist,
Transcendentalism)
• Why are they religions? James's first approximation
of an answer: “Walks like a duck, talks like a
duck….”
• A better answer is that they all share a reference
to something “godlike.”
GODLIKE?
• What makes something godlike?
• That it is first and overarching. In this sense, religion can
be understood as a human attitude toward primal
truth.
•
James calls this sort of attitude a “Total reaction.”
• But not all “total reactions” are equal. James is
particularly dismissive of a favorite "TR" of mine: Irony.
•
•
Religion is serious, but not morose (Schopenhauer/Nietzsche).
So, as a further qualification of our definition, divine =
“That primal reality that an individual feels impelled to
respond to solemnly and gravely” (44-5).
THE ESSENCE OF THE PERSONAL RELIGION
• This definition still covers a wide range, but James
proposes to deal only with the most obvious (read
‘extreme’) cases.
• This emphasis on the extreme cases of religious
conviction helps us to clarify the “something more” that
religion has over morality.
• Both religion and morality are an assent, a form of
acceptance of an order, but only religion is necessarily
characterized as a joyous assent.
• To clarify this emotional distinction, James contrasts in
some detail Stoicism and Christianity (48). The
contrasting terms include: resignation vs. passion;
heroism vs. consolation. The sum: (49).
• James summarizes this unique characteristic of personal
religious experience as a specific state of mind (54).
• As this state of mind, religion makes a positive and
particular addition to our conscious experience (55-6).
LECTURE 3: THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
• Though it is unclear how his definition of religion in
the preceding lecture prefigures it (invocation of
‘divine’?), James begins Lecture 3 with a new
characterization of religious experience: belief in
an unseen order and belief that harmonious
adjustment to that order is our supreme good (61).
• This is not a casual addition to our understanding
of our object. It signals the basically
epistemological character of this lecture.
• As such, the purpose of this lecture is to specify the
psychological dimensions of these beliefs.
POLARIZING BELIEF
• James's epistemological concerns are centered on a
very basic feature of much of what we understand as
religious experience (esp. of Christianity): the lack of a
sensible object of religious consciousness.
• Contemporary theistic religions are almost entirely abstract.
• "The sentiment of reality can indeed attach itself so strongly to
our object of belief that our whole life is polarized through and
through, so to speak by its sense of the existence of the thing
believed in, and yet that thing, for purposes of definite
description, can hardly said to be present to our mind at all"
(63-4).
• What do we need to account for? An apparent feature
of human consciousness (66-7).
A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION
• One way of characterizing the experience James is
pointing at is as an "undifferentiated sense of
reality."
• There is another psychologically 'common'
experience that is so characterized: hallucination, a
feeling of a presence + feeling of unreality (see the
accounts from 67-73).
• Obviously, many religious experiences are felt these ways.
• The purpose of this comparison is not to reduce the
significance of religious belief, but to note that it is
an instance of a particular human intuitional
capacity.
ONTOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
• James calls this capacity “ontological
imagination” (83). Key to his treatment of it is the
‘convincing’ character of the imaginings.
• James contrasts this imagination with “rationalism,”
to rationalism's discredit, insisting that this
imagination has deeper roots (born of intuitions
more fundamental than those animating an
inquiring mind).
• James is careful to insist that his is not an
evaluative claim, just a statement of fact. Is this
true (84), (85-6)?
THE FRUITS?
• If we accept James's claim here, then his response
to the epistemological issue is a straightforwardly
pragmatic one: the beliefs are justified by their
fruits.
• As his examples have suggested, the belief in the
‘something larger’ opens an affective dimension
of experience characterized by solemn joy and by
moods of contraction and expansion.
• These parameters establish the context within
which James will examine two distinctive
tendencies animating religious belief: HealthyMindedness and The Sick Soul.