EN
The essay 'The Will to Believe' by William James is among the most frequently mentioned of his works - it is often quoted from and commented upon. But it is usually interpreted without taking into account the rest of his philosophy, says the authoress. As a result, his philosophy of religion is notoriously simplified and reduced to a sheer pragmatic stance. The purpose of the article is to offer an alternative interpretation of James's philosophy of religion and to present it as a sustained defence of religious subjectivism. The authoress argues against the mainstream reading of James that he was not an epistemological relativist but an advocate of sincere soul searching in philosophy without a presupposed agenda of theoretical tenets and claims.