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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Too many anecdotes which I cannot accept as a way to argue or form a thesis. However, there are several great insights about God and religion. God is the holder of immortality. James writes well and is well reasoned.
Review of The Varieties of Religious Experience
TLDR: good way to get an overview of what’s out there, especially in the Christian world. His insights are a bit lacking.
First off, this would better have been titled the Varieties of Christian Experiences, with a smattering of references to other religions. But I’ll put that point aside for the rest of the review and give him the benefit of the doubt that he was probably limited in how much he could delve into other religions (given the culture he was writing for at the time).
His basic premise in these lectures is to describe, from a psychologist’s perspective, the varieties of different people’s personal religious experiences, and try to understand them. He explains right off the bat that by dissecting them in such a way he is not at all trying to discredit their value or that they really happened. His first lecture I found to be very good as it explores the question of whether understanding the origins of events should contribute to how much we value or trust those events.
His methodology for picking examples to study is to pick the most extreme examples. He and I disagree—if that’s your only criteria then how are we filtering out the insane from the Godly? Nevertheless I read on and enjoyed learning about many of the different experiences people have had. This book of lectures is essentially a huge compendium of anecdotes, grouped by topic, with only a few chapters that are proper lectures on William James’ opinions on broad subjects, such as the chapter on philosophy toward the end. (This I considered to be probably the least useful chapter by far. I don’t think he knows what he is talking about at all re philosophy and he would have been better off not mentioning it.)
Overall I give this some stars for simply making available to me such a breadth of examples. This has piqued my interest on several notable figures and books that I will now go read.
However I found it lacking in two ways. The first is that, while with some of his claims he does back them up with good evidence, James also continually makes wide-sweeping claims unbacked by any evidence. He simply uses a word like “clearly” or “obviously” or “it should be apparent.” No, no, oftentimes it’s not in the least apparent—in my opinion at least. I recognize that not everyone will agree on what is apparent or not.
The second problem I have is with his manner of summarily dismissing entire areas of religion (such as mysticism or philosophy) or people. For example, he was extremely unfair to Mother Theresa in my opinion.
I also take some issue with him giving credence to some more extreme people who we cannot say are acting in good faith when they claim to be religious. Some examples of what I would include would be the sadomasochistic monks, a pirate who claims God helps him murder several people in Lecture 19, and especially the whole chapter devoted to the mind cure movement which is clearly a grouping of cults meant to take advantage of people.
The final lecture, which is supposed to be conclusions, rather baffled me. For the first half he talked on and on about topics that were seemingly unrelated and new topics not talked about during the rest of the lectures. But the second half did finally make an attempt to put together some concluding thoughts that were worthwhile but certainly not ground-breaking by any means.
An insight of his that I did find particularly compelling is that we interact with the supernatural through our subconscious. There is considerable evidence that he cites to back this up and for me personally that idea illuminated many of my own experiences.
I didn’t end this series of lectures feeling quite satisfied, but I am glad that I have been made aware of some areas of spirituality that I was unaware of, and it has given me further reading recommendations. So for those reasons it was worth reading.
TLDR: good way to get an overview of what’s out there, especially in the Christian world. His insights are a bit lacking.
First off, this would better have been titled the Varieties of Christian Experiences, with a smattering of references to other religions. But I’ll put that point aside for the rest of the review and give him the benefit of the doubt that he was probably limited in how much he could delve into other religions (given the culture he was writing for at the time).
His basic premise in these lectures is to describe, from a psychologist’s perspective, the varieties of different people’s personal religious experiences, and try to understand them. He explains right off the bat that by dissecting them in such a way he is not at all trying to discredit their value or that they really happened. His first lecture I found to be very good as it explores the question of whether understanding the origins of events should contribute to how much we value or trust those events.
His methodology for picking examples to study is to pick the most extreme examples. He and I disagree—if that’s your only criteria then how are we filtering out the insane from the Godly? Nevertheless I read on and enjoyed learning about many of the different experiences people have had. This book of lectures is essentially a huge compendium of anecdotes, grouped by topic, with only a few chapters that are proper lectures on William James’ opinions on broad subjects, such as the chapter on philosophy toward the end. (This I considered to be probably the least useful chapter by far. I don’t think he knows what he is talking about at all re philosophy and he would have been better off not mentioning it.)
Overall I give this some stars for simply making available to me such a breadth of examples. This has piqued my interest on several notable figures and books that I will now go read.
However I found it lacking in two ways. The first is that, while with some of his claims he does back them up with good evidence, James also continually makes wide-sweeping claims unbacked by any evidence. He simply uses a word like “clearly” or “obviously” or “it should be apparent.” No, no, oftentimes it’s not in the least apparent—in my opinion at least. I recognize that not everyone will agree on what is apparent or not.
The second problem I have is with his manner of summarily dismissing entire areas of religion (such as mysticism or philosophy) or people. For example, he was extremely unfair to Mother Theresa in my opinion.
I also take some issue with him giving credence to some more extreme people who we cannot say are acting in good faith when they claim to be religious. Some examples of what I would include would be the sadomasochistic monks, a pirate who claims God helps him murder several people in Lecture 19, and especially the whole chapter devoted to the mind cure movement which is clearly a grouping of cults meant to take advantage of people.
The final lecture, which is supposed to be conclusions, rather baffled me. For the first half he talked on and on about topics that were seemingly unrelated and new topics not talked about during the rest of the lectures. But the second half did finally make an attempt to put together some concluding thoughts that were worthwhile but certainly not ground-breaking by any means.
An insight of his that I did find particularly compelling is that we interact with the supernatural through our subconscious. There is considerable evidence that he cites to back this up and for me personally that idea illuminated many of my own experiences.
I didn’t end this series of lectures feeling quite satisfied, but I am glad that I have been made aware of some areas of spirituality that I was unaware of, and it has given me further reading recommendations. So for those reasons it was worth reading.
he searched high and low near and far for all kinds of religeus experiences. usually these binds teh person to the experience or a simbol associated to the exprience, and become more real than all other physically manifest experiences. god is real because the effect that it has on people is real
James provides an empirical approach to evaluating mystical experiences. His findings are insightful, persuasive and practical. One of his more interesting conclusions is that he feels mystical experiences provide an argument for the existence of God, though this isn't his main thesis. At times the book is quite verbose and with his long sentences, it can be a little hard to read. This is compounded by often long accounts of mystic experiences. Given it is over 100 years old, this could be forgiven.
I'm rereading this on Kindle right now because though I said I 'read' it, I'm not sure if I digested the whole thing.
I'm very glad I finally read this book. I was worried it would be dry or boring, but it was actually very readable and interesting. I almost wish I had read it when I was younger and had a different belief system. I always enjoy reading about religion with a clinical detachment.
Quintessentially American take on religion: verbose, individualistic, pragmatic, and a clear lean towards the ineffable. It's a classic, and it's handy to consult; but it's dense, detailed, and hard to tell whether it's worth the effort of trudging through from cover to cover. As a work of history, it certainly encapsulates the American perspective on religion -- especially at the turn of the century. Vestiges of that perspective remain and are amplified today.
One of the more surprisingly beneficial elements of the book wasn't the argument's force as such but the rich selection of quoted material that James draws on. He has access to a great number of personal diaries, literature, and poetry that for him exemplify the points he's trying to make.
Here's much of James's pragmatic thesis in nuce: "Beliefs, in short, are rules for action; and the whole function of thinking is but one step in the production of active habits. If there were any part of a thought that made no difference in the thought's practical consequences, then that part would be no proper element of the thought's significance. To develop a thought's meaning we need therefore only determine what conduct it is fitted to produce; that conduct is for us its sole significance; and the tangible fact at the root of all our thought-distinctions is that there is no one of them so fine as to consist in anything but a possible difference in practice" (384).
One of the more surprisingly beneficial elements of the book wasn't the argument's force as such but the rich selection of quoted material that James draws on. He has access to a great number of personal diaries, literature, and poetry that for him exemplify the points he's trying to make.
Here's much of James's pragmatic thesis in nuce: "Beliefs, in short, are rules for action; and the whole function of thinking is but one step in the production of active habits. If there were any part of a thought that made no difference in the thought's practical consequences, then that part would be no proper element of the thought's significance. To develop a thought's meaning we need therefore only determine what conduct it is fitted to produce; that conduct is for us its sole significance; and the tangible fact at the root of all our thought-distinctions is that there is no one of them so fine as to consist in anything but a possible difference in practice" (384).
muy informativo, pero es mas como un manual que debe revisarse reiteradas veces perfecto para investigación (gracias j.p.)