Rorty on James' Varieties of Religious Experience (2of4)

[bahramf]

"The utility of a belief is the only judge of its truth."

If James had gone further with this thought, he'd be the religious version of Nietzsche.

[rootberg]

It's so funny that he fail to understand his fellow pragmatist by being just the kind of person that James try to get through to. The cynical pessimist who is such a spiritual chicken that he would never dare to hope that the religious dimension of the world is true. But Rorty do not want to humble himself. What difference does it make if he attain the whole world of literature/philosophy but loose his own life? With what will he buy his life back? Paralysis of analysis.

[bahramf]

What are you talking about? He's already dead. He lost his spiritual life (the wager), but he did gain philosophy and literature, and that's what's important to me (and him, obviously).

Call it an irrational wager, but Rorty makes life on this world better. James goes for both this life and the after life, and stumbles short of fulfilling either's demands on a philosopher, in my opinion.