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== Philosophy of religion == [[File:WJ-Variety-Religious-Exp.png|thumb|right|Excerpt]] James did important work in [[philosophy of religion]]. In his [[Gifford Lectures]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] he provided a wide-ranging account of ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' (1902) and interpreted them according to his pragmatic leanings. Some of the important claims he makes in this regard: * Religious genius (experience) should be the primary topic in the study of religion, rather than religious institutions—since institutions are merely the social descendant of genius. * The intense, even pathological varieties of experience (religious or otherwise) should be sought by psychologists, because they represent the closest thing to a microscope of the mind—that is, they show us in drastically enlarged form the normal processes of things. * In order to usefully interpret the realm of common, shared experience and history, we must each make certain "[[overbelief|over-beliefs]]" in things which, while they cannot be proven on the basis of experience, help us to live fuller and better lives. * A variety of characteristics can be seen within a single individual. There are subconscious elements that compose the scattered fragments of a personality. This is the reflection of a greater dissociation which is the separation between science and religion. * Religious Mysticism is only one half of mysticism, the other half is composed of the insane and both of these are co-located in the "great subliminal or transmarginal region".<ref>{{Cite book |last=James |first=William |year=1985 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=Penguin Classics |location=New York |page=426}}</ref> James investigated [[mysticism|mystical]] experiences throughout his life, leading him to experiment with [[chloral hydrate]] (1870), [[Alkyl nitrites|amyl nitrite]] (1875), [[nitrous oxide]] (1882), and [[peyote]] (1896).{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} James claimed that it was only when he was under the influence of nitrous oxide that he was able to understand [[Hegel]].<ref>William James, [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehn/release/nitrous.html "Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide"]</ref> He concluded that while the revelations of the mystic hold true, they hold true only for the mystic; for others, they are certainly ideas to be considered, but can hold no claim to truth without personal experience of such. ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world."<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |year=2007 |title=American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/americanphil_xxxx_2008_000_9069252 |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanphil_xxxx_2008_000_9069252/page/n335 310] |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93926-3}}</ref> James was an advocate of [[theistic finitism]], which he used to explain the [[problem of evil]].<ref name="Barnard">Barnard, George William. (1997). ''Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism''. State University of New York Press. p. 251. {{ISBN|0-7914-3223-8}} "James's theology answer to the problem of evil is strikingly simple, but theologically daring: God is ''not'' all-powerful, all-knowing, or all-pervasive, but rather, is finite."</ref><ref>Weidenbaum, Jonathan. (2013) ''William James’s Argument for a Finite Theism''. In Diller J., Kasher A. (eds) ''Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities''. Springer. pp. 323–331. {{ISBN|978-94-007-5218-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Stepanenko, Walter Scott|year=2018|title=Jamesian Finite Theism and the Problems of Suffering|journal=European Journal for Philosophy of Religion|url=https://philosophy-of-religion.eu/index.php/ejpr/article/view/1966|volume=10|issue=4|pages=1–25|doi=10.24204/ejpr.v10i4.1966}}</ref>
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