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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper answers specific questions about the views on religion William James expressed in his series of lectures at Edinburgh University in 1902. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVWJames.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
paper uses Jamess lectures to answer specific questions about his thinking. Discussion - Part A Because this paper is so brief, we cannot do more than answer the questions. In
Part A, we want to consider what James thinks counts as religion, and why it is valuable for human beings, using Lecture II as our guide. There are subquestions that
well answer as we consider the main topic. James argues that there are many ways of thinking and sentiments that could be called "religion," and that therefore he is not
going to attempt to discuss religion in a broad sense, but narrow it to a specific definition or field that interests him. He begins the narrowing process by considering the
difference between personal and institution aspects of religion. He considers the first as an "external" form of worship consisting of ritual and ceremony, and the second "internal" to the individual.
He decides to focus on the personal aspects of religion. He then says that for purposes of the lecture, he will define religion as follows: Religion "shall mean for us
the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine" (James, Lecture
II). This relation may be "moral, physical, or ritual" depending upon the person, and thus it provides the basis from which "theologies, philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow" (James,
Lecture II). This is interesting in that it puts man, not the church, at the center of religion; James also says that he is not going to discuss these other
concepts further, since "the immediate personal experiences will amply fill our time" (James, Lecture II). James understands that the next problem is the use of the word "divine," which he
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