The Varieties and the Cognitive Value of Religious Experiences

Abstract

When analyzing William James’ philosophy of religion, we often turn to his explicit writings on religion, e.g. in his The Varieties of Religious Experience,2 and to his theoretical views on cognition, experience, and epistemology, such as in The Principles of Psychology, A Pluralistic Universe, and Essays in Radical Empiricism.3 There is much debate, however, on what James’ views are on such basic issues as consciousness, experience, and truth.4 This chapter establishes whether, from a pragmatist perspective, religious experiences can have cognitive value. Instead of turning to James’ theoretical writings on these issues, however, I analyze his more empirical The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature in answering this question.KeywordsNaturalistic KindReligious ExperienceMystical ExperiencePragmatist PerspectivePractical AbilityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.