PHILOS 1E03 Chapter 5: Readings 5 – William James "Lectures IV and V"
23 Jan 2017
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Readings 5 william james lectures iv and v . The secret motive of what mostly all individuals do and what they are willing to endure is happiness. Happiness and unhappiness seem to be the poles that the universe and individuals" interests revolve around. There are simpler and more complex types of religious happiness. To many people happiness = congenital and irreclaimable: cosmic emotion" inevitably takes place in the form of enthusiasm and freedom from the outset, people see religion as on of union with the divine. Happiness, like every other emotional state, has its blindness and insensibility to opposing facts: this makes it an instinctive weapon for self-protection against disturbance. The deliberate adoption of an optimistic minds makes it way into philosophy. The systematic cultivation of healthy minded-ness as a religious attitude: is consonant with important currents in human nature: we all cultivate it more or less.
