Excerpts from What Pragmatism Means, by William James (1907)
1. For the first part of your paper, think about a time when you held a belief that was important to you but that came into conflict from new information or a seeming contradiction in your own beliefs. Describe what that belief was, why it was important and why you were conflicted about it. Specifically show how that conflict came from what James calls “new information” or “contradictions in beliefs.”
2. Describe how you were able to resolve that conflict in your belief system. Were you able to integrate your original background belief with the new or seemingly contradictory information? If so, talk about how you were able to bring the background belief and the conflicting belief into harmony. Or did you have to eliminate one of your beliefs. Perhaps you had to get rid of your original belief, or perhaps you got rid of the belief that caused the conflict with your original belief. Either way, describe what you did and why. If your conflict in beliefs is still unresolved, talk about some of the potential solutions that you see and how they might fit with this model.
3. Finally evaluate James’ model of belief itself. Do you think it is an accurate or effective account of how to set your own belief system in the complex and rapidly changing world in which we live?
4. You will post your ideas to the group discussion forum. You can find the forum by navigating to the Assignments link in the left taskbar and locating this assignment. Your essay should be at least 2 pages (650 words).
5. Respond to at least 1 of the posts of your classmates. Compliment them on some aspect of their analysis and say something about how your own experiences are similar or different from theirs.
