Psychologist William James now stands as one of the true intellectual titans to come out of late 19th century America. With "The Will to Believe", first published in 1896, he argues that it is defendable to adopt a certain belief without prior evidence of its truth. Taking religious belief as his primary example, James claims that even scientific inquiry is oftentimes undertaken with a belief that a given experiment will bear out a hypothesis. In this way, he goes on to argue that human beings have an innate religious intuition which has led to a belief in God even before the truth of God's existence can be proven. With a deeply probing mind, James illustrates with this lecture why he was one of the leading lights in an era that was just coming to grips with the scientific breakthroughs that would flourish in the 20th century.

The Will to Believe by William James was published in 1896 and is now in the public domain. This audio book was recorded by LearnOutLoud.com and is narrated by Seth D. Anderson. Copyright © 2011 LearnOutLoud, Inc. Any reproduction or illegal distribution of the content in any form will result in immediate action against the person concerned.