Will Smith Books

First, a word about the form of this two-volume work. Volume One contains the core of Schopenhauer's philosophy and is his one absolutely essential book. Volume Two, which is longer, consists of elaborations upon the themes of Volume One. So, if you're strapped for cash and desperately need to own some Schopenhauer, it's fine to buy only Volume One. You won't be missing anything essential.
This book is one of the most provocative and readable works of 19th-century Western philosophy. Anyone who has waded through the soggy, muddy-bottomed marshes of Hegel's prose will be delighted by the clarity of Schopenhauer. While I remain unconvinced by his theory of all-pervading Will, seeing it as a way of sneaking transcendentalism back into a fortunately disenchanted world (Will seems at times too much like an omnipresent god for my tastes), I still highly recommend Schopenhauer. Even if you don't agree with him, arguing with him keeps you on your intellectual toes.

Schopenhauer's magnum opus towers high above the silly word games of the analysts. This book is philosophy at its very best- a book that no educated person should miss for Schopenhauer wrote primarily for the layman. Like Nietzsche, he was highly skeptical of the "professionals" of his time. One thing that immediately strikes the reader is Schopenhauer's clear and crisp command of the written word unlike the severe case of abstractionitis that both Hegel and Heidegger seem to suffer from.

The World as Will and Representation clothes Transcendental Idealism in a pessimistic dress and offers a glorious, bold and innovated view of Kant's critical philosophy. Its scope and breadth reaches the outer limitations of human understanding creating a new and beautiful, yet cold and austere, vision that will forever challenge, shake, and destroy most people's views of reality. This book along with Kant's Critique gives a possible answer to one of the most perplexing problems of human understanding: it challenges and attempts to disarm Hume's powerful attack against the perceived "illusion" of causality. Whether it succeeds or not is left to the reader to decide.

Schopenhauer starts where Kant stops and he easily transcends him showing us how the world is a hostile place to live in and how reality is forever unknown to the knower. Few professional philosophers would probably agree with Schopenhauer. This in no way dimishes the value of his philosophy.

It is amazing that today most people simply ignore Schopenhauer and take him as a minor figure in the Western tradition. Part of the reason for this is because of Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, who simply dismissed Schopenhauer and gave him a bad reputation in his popular book "History of Western Philosophy." (This book is heavily biased and is probably one of Russell's worst books causing more harm than good for people new to philosophy.) Russell basically rejected Schopenhauer's work on the premise of hypocrisy since Schopenhauer did not actually practice the philosophy that he preached; yet ironically enough, Russell, being a brilliant logician and no less than the father of modern analytic philosophy, succumbed to emotionalism via the tu quoque fallacy. (i.e. judging a claim as false based on the character of the person claiming it instead of its truth value)

The best thing to do is to simply read the book yourself. Commentaries are helpful after one has understood the work, never before. It is highly recommended that one read Kant and then follow-up with Schopenhauer's book. (Though many have still profited skipping Kant altogether.) Very few things in life will probably be more important or rewarding than doing this.

I have read Schopenhauers works and would heartily agree with the other writers on its beauty, simplicity and philosophy. This author strikes me as a philosopher in the classic sense(a lover of wisdom). Ive read Hegel, Wittgenstien, Kant and attempted Heiddeger and none come close to Schoppenhauer's great work. Not to dismiss the others but their writing style is dodgy, unclear or badly translated. Its fairly clear that Schopenhauer is somewhat of an underdog in scholastic circles as most philosophy professors tend to stress Hegel over A.S. No writer in philosophy writes with as much wit and clarity, if you have read this far and this many reviews stop persecuting yourself and buy this book.

Written when he was 30 Schopenhauer single-mindedly preserved the book and abstained form changing it in the subsequent decades and publications (however he wrote a supplemental volume II years later to expound on the main themes of the volume I). This English translation beautifully conveys the clarity, simplicity and magnificence of Schopenhauer's perfect German prose. As a person who reads philosophy for pleasure and insight, I must say I enjoyed it immensely and gained insight into fundamental questions of existence. Influenced by Eastern (Indian) philosophies, Schopenhauer courageously expounds his profoundly Pessimistic ideas without ever entering into dogmatism, characteristic of many philosophers, and "mystification" which he accused Hegel and other contemporary "Philosophy Professors". A familiarity with Kantian philosophy and Schopenhauer's other works (especially: On the Fourfold Root of Principle of Sufficient Reason" and "On the Will in Nature") is needed in order to clearly grasp the fundamental ideas of this book.

Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the most interesting great philosophers. A misogynist, misanthrope and great lover of music and art, he was kinder to his dogs than he was to people.

Despite his oddities, Schopenhauer provides us with one of the most fascinating philosophical systems a great philosopher has ever produced. Perhaps one of the last philosophers who tried to produce a unified vision of the entire universe, Schopenhauer's universe is as depressing as it is majestic.

Schopenhauer's vision is spelt out at great length in his great masterpiece, the World as Will and Idea. For Schopenhauer, the key to understanding reality is that everything is the product of a blind, unconditioned energy or force called Will. Deeply read in Eastern philosophy, especially Buddhism, Schopenhauer regards the universe as a dark place filled with evil and suffering, caused by the endless activity created in the world by the Will (which as the cause in itself is the One or Absolute as understood traditionally by philosophers East and West) which appears in the world of sense experience in infinitely diverse ways, yet in ways which are perpetually in conflict and war with each other. For Schopenhauer, this dark force shows itself no more truely in the biological and human worlds, in the terrible struggle for existence which relies on killing and destruction of other life along with rapine, greed and war essentially for one being to triumph over the other. Schopenhauer, writing about three decades before Darwin, remarkably anticipates some of the ideas of evolutionary theory and also the psychoanalytic theories of Freud, which sees concious human activity as being the result of deeper unconcious, instinctual drives, especially those of sex and survival. He also anticipates some aspects of physical science which see the universe as a whole being the product of chaotic energy and forces acting at the deepest levels of reality.

Schopenhauer, despite being an idealist, marshals many powerful philosophical arguments as well as quotes from writers, poets, mystics, and also evidence gathered from science and even newspaper reports to support his worldview. He is deeply empirical and believes his idea explains not just philosophical issues but the very way the world is as it is found by scientists and naturalists. Indeed, his close attention to science makes Schopenhauer one of the most astute philosophers of the natural world, along with Aristotle and Descartes.

Schopenhauer also deduces a system of ethics and salvation from his system. His ethics are essentially Buddhist; indeed, Schopenhauer argued that of all the world's religions, Buddhism is the best because it accords most closely to the truth (salvation comes through renouncing the world and through a selfless ethic of compassionate love for suffering) although he also greatly admires the Hindu sages who wrote the Upanishads, a work he quotes very frequently. He also admires Christian mystics, especially Eckhart and Boehme.

Schopenhauer like Plato is a great writer as well as Philosopher. Unlike many German philosophers who wrote very obscurely, Schopenhauer believed strongly in expressing ideas clearly and very often he uses many rhetorical and literary tropes to create beautiful concrete illustrations of his philosophical ideas. This is especially so in his brilliant and witty essays, which earned him more fame than his true magnum opus ever did. He also viciously attacks Hegel and his school, feeling they have betrayed the legacy of Kant (of whom Schopenhauer claimed he was a true disciple) through obscure sophistry designed to reintroduce the metaphysical bugbears Kant had properly banished forever from Philosophy. For Schopenhauer, clarity was always central, unfortunately something many later German philosophers did not learn.

Schopenhauer's work had a massive influence on many leading lights in European thought. People influenced by his ideas and who quoted him readily included Goethe, Joseph Conrad, Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, Schrodinger, Wittgenstein, Thomas Mann, and many others. Today he remains a fascinating philosopher to study and his relevance remains, particularly as his ideas seem to have anticipated some of the ideas of modern evolutionary biology and physical science, and also for his keen interest in Eastern philosophical and religious thought, which is starting to strongly impact the West today. He is certainly one of the greatest philosophers Germany ever produced after Kant.

This is another funny book from Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. A great addtion to any teacher's fable unit. Because it deals with fables and morals from the present, the kids think it is hilarious and get a better idea of what a fable is. Even children who roll their eyes at the idea of fables find something funny in this book. The skunk and the squid stories amuse kids quite a bit.

The absurd humor and engaging illustrations hide some real moral lessons, but mostly it is just laugh-out-loud funny. I do not understand why there are no other ratings. If you liked the Stinky Cheese Man, you will certainly love this collection of fables. I gave a copy to a co-worker when her first child was born, and she still calls me "spanking head". If you didn't like the Stinky cheese man, than you had best stay away, because you are most likely a squid. Or at least a slug.

This book has beautiful pictures. The situations are ones that kids can relate to - and offer an opportunity for kids to learn some appropriate behaviors in difficult situations. Then they follow it up with a moral that is pointless. I am disappointed in the book.

Those of us who remember Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith as the author and illustrator of "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!" will know exactly what they are getting into when they pick up "Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables." The thesis here is that even before Aesop a legion of storytellers have told stories about annoying, weird, pain-in-the-neck people, turned them into animals, added a moral, and thereby changed rude gossip and bad jokes into fables. The idea here is present a collection of fables that Aesop might be telling if he was alive today. The moral, according to Sciezka and Smith, is that "If you can't say something nice about someone, change the guy's name to Donkey or Squid."

What young readers will find in these inventive fables are not lessons about necessity being the mother of invention or look before you leap, but more practical concerns for the modern world such as do not believe everything you see on TV, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and just because you have a lot of stuff do not think you are so special. Some of the fables you need to think about to get to the real point, such as the moral "Don't play with matches," which is really about something even worse than matches (i.e., people you are warned to stay away from). Throughout the book you will find a constant onslaught of wicked humor (the grasshopper's history assignment is priceless) and even if it over the heads of many young readers, they will understand the jokes down the road when they return to this book. After all, the morals of fables are supposed to be timeless, even if they were just made up for this 1998 book.

Most of the stories are told about animals, from frogs and squids to elephants and slugs, but there are also stories involving things like a tongue and a BeefSnakStik (complete with registered trademark). Smith's illustrations are creative and his wife, Molly Leach, provides the exotic design for the book, which will provide appropriate visual stimuli to go with all the morals. The end result is that "Squids Will Be Squids" tells contemporary fables in a contemporary way, and if you have a complaint about the use "squids" as the plural for "squid," then remember to read the fine print of this tongue-in-cheek volume (okay, in the fable about the hand, foot and tongue the tongue is obvious out of the cheek, but that is a different point entirely). Young readers will no doubt be inspired to come up with their own fables, and this book even includes solid advice on how to do that as well.

I read a good book called Squids will be Squids. It's a picture book by Jon Sckiezca and Lane smith.If you like funny, goofy books Squids will be squids is for you.

This wonderful book is a book of many different short stories, each one page long. One of the short stories is squids will be squies. Each of the stories have the moral written in parentheses. The morals are also funny. For example the squids will be squids one is about four animals that all agree on what to do, well three of them agree. The squid is being difficult. In the the parentheses the moral is,. ''squids will be squids!'' I highly recommend this book if you like funny stories.Its very good andI think you'll like it.

I heard Anthony F. Smith speak this week in San Diego which influenced me to buy his book. Taboo #4 is Women Make Better Leaders. Smith's discussion is around the importance of emotional intelligence in the leaders of today and the future. He talks about how women are naturally better wired for this EQ capability and then tempers that by saying that most women don't want to be at the top. They would rather be doing something else, aren't willing to pay the price and don't need the "WIN" like men do. I hate to generalize about gender issues but I like what Smith says about women choosing to do other things. It's a great step in the right direction for honoring that women have many choices and most of those are correct choices if they work for you. I coach/talk with women all time who feel they have to live in a box about their career. Not so and Smith is helping open your eyes to accepting that. The book is worth the read and you shouldn't pass up an opportunity to hear Mr. Smith speak (and no, I don't know him =-).

www.sixfiguremomsclub.com

Anthony F. Smith discusses common workforce taboos that can create organizational problems for leaders. These taboos - from sensitive subjects like nepotism or sexism to sacred corporate myths like the superhuman CEO - provoke such strong reactions that many people can't even discuss them or admit the truth about them. Emotion simply stands in the way. Smith does a good job of helping leaders see both sides of these issues and explains how failure to address them may be holding back your organization. He offers hints about ways to discuss them constructively. Even if you don't act on all these issues, you will benefit from being more aware of them and their ramifications. getAbstract recommends this book to leaders who want to avoid being blindsided by sacred cows and shibboleths. If it isn't a must-read, it is certainly a should-read.

This book covers one consultant's experience with corporate leaders and the taboos that surround those leaders and organizations. It makes it sound like all corporate leaders are greedy, dishonest, corrupt, and have no integrity. I found this book to be very demotivating and if what is said in this book is true, it makes me not wish to continue to climb the corporate ladder any higher. I don't believe this book represents all leaders and sheds a negative light on being a leader. Although, I could be wrong.

It seems that so many new books on leadership simply re-hash well-known theories and concepts. Not so with this book. Anthony Smith confronts sensitive issues such as politics in the workplace and the challenge of balancing work and family responsibilities with candor and a heavy dose of reality. A must-read book for anybody who wants to better understand what really makes successful leaders tick.

We all know that there are subjects you simply can't talk about in public, within your family, or with certain friends. They are topics that are so volatile that simply bringing them up ignites a fire that is completely destructive before anything worthwhile can be gained. This interesting little book by Anthony F. Smith addresses 10 taboos in the world of business that leaders still have to address. Smith talks about the each taboo, what the issues are, and how you might be able deal with them in a constructive way.

He divides the book into four parts: Introducing the Taboos, Taboos of Persuasion, Taboos of Position, and Taboos of the Person.

The ten taboos included are:

1) What leadership REALLY takes versus the pieties we say about leadership.
2) The role of Charisma in leadership (good looks do play a role).
3) Real leaders do play politics, actually.
4) Women who care to be leaders actually do a better job than men.
5) The real cost of double standards and why we have them anyway.
6) Why leaders play favorites with friends and family and the associated costs.
7) Why leaders should groom successors and why they don't.
8) What work-life balance means to a driven leader.
9) The role of self-interest in success.
10) Why top leadership is a lonely job and why the top leaders like it.

Smith concludes with a discussion of dealing with the taboos we are now talking about.

A handy book for managers who are on their way up or already there.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

I highly recommend this book to any dad, but especially to the divorced dads out there. This is a sweet story about a little boy and his dad and how they love and care for each other - reference is made to mom in a positive yet honest way - nice.

My husband reads this book to my son every year for his birthday; he's now 6. When he reads it tears come to my eyes because of the sensitivity of the verses.

This is Will Smith's song "Just the Two of Us" set to pictures in a story format. You never realize how powerful some rap/R&B music is until you read it. This proves that.

I think this book is realy good. I recomend to any parent to read this to thier child. will Smith is an excellent storyteller in this touching book.

Don't skip the dedication or title page, especially if you are familiar with Will Smith' rap career. This is a charming illustrion of Smith's version of the 1980 love song, reinterpreted and revamped to celebrate the special bond between a father and son. The pictures are engaging and keep the text from turning sappy. Great book for dads to read to their sons.

A word of caution to teachers - know your audience. Don't use this book as a read aloud if you have fatherless boys in your class.

"Just the two of us,
Building castles in the sky.
Just the two of us,
You and I."

Every time I came to this refrain in the book, I sang it to the Bill Withers's song of the same title. Sure enough--right on the copyright page is accredited the 1980 song used in this book, "Just the two of us." That is when I discovered also that this was a hit rap song by Will Smith. I knew he was a rapper, but never listened, so I was not familiar with the song.

"Just the Two of Us" was adapted by Smith in this celebration of fatherhood and responsibility. It is also Smith's song about his deep and abiding love for his son. According to the lyrics, Smith fell in love at seventeen. When his girlfriend became pregnant, they did the responsible thing and were married. It ended at some point with Smith obtaining custody.

Just as his parents before him, Smith works to teach his son how to be a man: "Dignity, integrity, honor..." and "Always tell the truth, say your prayers, hold doors, pull out chairs, easy on the swears..."

The closing words: "Daddy loves you! Daddy loves you! for the rest of your life." These are words that spring tears because of the power of their declaration. You know Will Smith means what he says.

The third part of the collaboration is the artwork of Kadir Nelson: beautiful, intense, and vivid, rendered in pencil and oil paint. I'm not sure why he adds the little exaggerations like that awful sway in Smith's back and the large skulls of both Smith and his son. Those are not very attractive, but not enough to take away from the gorgeous sunset picture of Smith and his son--orange sky, seagulls sweeping low, making a catch

At any rate the original Withers song as the creative source, plus the top-selling rap version, placed into a combination book of bright, happy yet realistic illustrations. This is a book that stays checked out in my school library.

Good job, Will Smith, on all fronts!

If you have ever offended someone (or been hurt by someone's words), or caught yourself lying to benefit yourself (or watched someone else do it), or manipulated/intimidated someone to get your way (or been the victim of the same), you realize the power of the tongue. What we say matters. As a Christ-follower, I want to encourage, edify and comfort others, not harm them. Therefore, I needed to know where I missed the mark in my speech. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of the need to leash your own tongue, this book is a good beginning. Why? Because it is a quick-and-easy read, well-organized in palatable bites, and gives a good overview of the different kinds of damage our tongues can do, not only to others, but also to ourselves. When you finish the book, you can pick the area you want to study and work on it in more depth - there are many books out there on this subject. And, as you become more aware of these kinds of blunders with your tongue, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you tend to make them less often until the blunders only happen rarely. I recommend you also search out the quoted Bible verses in your own Bible to read them in context. You may be surprised at what The Holy Spirit reveals to you about yourself.

I found this book to be rewarding and on time for me. I am going through a whole new transformaation and I am trying to learn how to curve my tongue. Our tongue can be as sharp as a knife. But I walk with this book at all time. Because old habits are hard to break. Especially if I walk around being the victim.

This book put a lot of things in my life into perspective. After reading it once and then revisiting chapters that were particular to a situation at a time, I would first think about what would come out of my mouth. No one can change over night but it gives you something to strive for.

The topic of this book is relavent and important for believers to apply to thier lives. The scripture is full of admonitions about controlling our tongues. This book, however, is not a good representative of that witness. The author's pentecostal background comes through in the very first lesson. The idea is portrayed that our lying will send us to hell. In addition, the author misuses and abuses scripture on a number of occasions. I doubt it was Jacob's commitment to titheing that assured God's blessing in his life. The topic is great. Find another book!!! Thanks, Pastor Ron

This book was... very okay. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a good book. There are better books on the topic.

On one page, the author praised Joel Osteen, which I found very concerning.

This was the first John Bellairs book I picked up as a kid - it had an interesting and spooky cover illustrated by the famous Edward Gorey. It should be noted that John Bellairs was a talented but very intense author - his series is generally for 5th graders and up. This particular title has the least occult references. (Or its tied with the The Trolley to Yesterday. The book begins in the 1950's where Johnny Dixon and his friend the professor Childermas visit a rich eccentric's manision who has recently died. The rich man's family offers a reward if someone can figure out a strange puzzle that may point to a will hidden leaving $$ to the heirs. Johnny seems to always be working on the puzzle even when other strange events occur while he is away at a camp. While away at camp he meets characters that lead him to a ghostly affair indeed and a surprise ending. The writing of Mr. Bellairs is gorgeous and gothic-tinged. This book could easily be enjoyed by adults who will love the historical references and the spine tingling atmosphere.

I got into John Bellairs when I was a kid of course and I enjoyed his books back then. I am 33 years old now with a kid of my own and I recently thought of him as well as other great books that I got into in my younger years and ordered a few of his books, among others. This was one of the books that I ordered and it is just as good now than it was when I was younger. I totally suggest this book as well as all the Johnny Dixon series. If you love magical stories, then this is the book for you.

This story by John Bellairs has a suspensing and mysterious plot. Johhny Dixon's persistence and determination won him 10,000 dollars. Although he is smart enough to figure out Mr. Glomus's riddle and will, he would also have to escape from a mummy to get the will. I would recommend this book to everyone because this story could inspire many people to go out on their own and have their own adventures. Although he wanted to find the will for the 10,000 dollars, he wanted it to save his grandma. This shows that he is not greedy.

I read this book when I was in third grade. Here I am, about to go to law school, and I still remember the details. The story keeps you hanging on the whole length of the book. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery, loves to be held in suspense, and who can handle staying up late, because you won't want to put it down.

I loved this entire series when I was a kid and read them all repeatedly. There is no question that the author is talented... the plots are facinating and the characters are vivid and sympathetic. This series is sure to catch the imagination of any child that is interested in mystery or the supernatural.

One caveat, however: these books are pretty dark. There's a lot of evil and anger portrayed, and I'm not sure if that's the sort of thing a child should be dwelling on. The protagonists are healthy role models and their intentions are good, but the book paints a pretty dark and scary picture of the rest of the world.

The author of the classic, bestselling coming of age story, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", will delight her fans with this book, which is evocative of lower middle class life in Brooklyn. While this book may not have the poignancy of her classic bestseller, it will, nonetheless, hold the interest of her fans. It is a story of dashed hopes and dreams, as well as that of bitter disillusionment from which the well-spring of hope arises, like a phoenix out of the ashes.

Margy Shannon grew up in the early part of the twentieth century, living a hand-to-mouth, hardscrabble existence in Brooklyn with her mother and father. Her parents, living embittered and estranged lives under the same roof, made Margy want to grow up and live happily ever after with the man of her dreams and with children of her own whom she would treat better than the way her own unhappy mother treated her.

When Margy was seventeen, she left school to work as a mail reader for a mail order firm, as she was expected to contribute financially to her parents' household. Margy enjoyed her job and very much liked her boss, Mr. Prentiss, with whom she felt a connection. She also developed camaraderie and friendships with the other girls with whom she worked. Life was finally getting good for Margy, and then she met Frankie Malone.

Frankie Malone was a guy from the neighborhood, an ambitious young man from a rough-and-tumble Irish family, upon whom Margy had a crush. Through happenstance, they began dating. When he asked her to marry him, Margy thought she had died and gone to heaven. Little did she know that she was on the path to a living hell.

Margy had seen marriage as a beginning to a new and wonderful life. Unfortunately, there were a number of issues that were unexpected and would serve to throw a bit of a monkey wrench into her plans. Margy's and Frankie's respective families loathed each other, adding tension to their relationship. What loomed larger in their marriage, however, was Frankie's avoidance of physical contact. In fact, his sexual orientation seemed ambiguous and his desires, ambivalent, causing Margy no end of consternation.

Moreover, Frankie was also reluctant to have children. Still, Margy was determined to make her marriage, such as it was, work. When she finally got pregnant, Frankie's reaction to her having his baby began the sounding of the death knell of their marriage. When tragedy struck, the bonds of that marriage began fully unraveling, making Margy realize that the life she had envisioned was simply a fairytale and that she had to make some tough decisions, if she was to have a better tomorrow.

This book is often compared to Smith's opus "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" and thus many readers miss what is truly great about this book. Whereas "Brooklyn" chronicles Francie's growth within her family from child to woman while weaving in the perspective of her mother, father, aunts, etc., "Tomorrow" is purely about Margie.

"Tomorrow" begins with 16-year-old Margie getting her first job in Brooklyn. It chronicles her courtship and marriage to Frankie, a neighborhood boy with his own family issues i.e. overbearing mother, loud father, myriad sisters. Margie's own parents are none too attentive to their daughter and what she might need, but feel pangs of loss when she decides to get married.

Margie tries to please her mother, mother-in-law, and husband, make ends meet, gets pregnant, and gradually all of these adult conventions that she is supposed to want threaten to destroy her unless she stands up to all of them. Only then will she truly be an adult.

This is an excellent account of a girl becoming a woman and proving it is an internal, not external, journey. The tale is as true today as it was in the 1940s. Female readers will identify with many of the sentiments expressed in this book and find themselves comparing their own lives to it.

In 1920's Brooklyn, Margie graduates from highschool and is filled with youthful optimism. Determined to rise above the drudgery and poverty of her upbringing, Margie finds a job at a small business nearby and attempts to escape her overbearing mother and her overworked,disillusioned father. Before long, she meets Frankie Malone, a poor Brooklynite like herself, and the two fall headlong into courtship and marriage. Despite differences between her and Frankie, and some difficulties in her relationship with her parents, Margie still hopes that "tomorrow will be better."

Perhaps more than many of her other books, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" showcases Betty Smith's boundless abilities. Although the synopsis of this book may sound unassuming and dull, with Smith's writing the story becomes rich and eye-opening. Never have I found another author who can take an ordinary life and an ordinary situation (such as Margie's) and fill it with such truth and wisdom so that it becomes powerful. Smith has a rare gift for truly putting herself "in her characters' shoes" and seamlessly weaving their differing stories together to form a believable novel. While "Tomorrow Will Be Better" is ultimately a sad story, its sadness is fitting, realistic, and handled extremely will. This story of optimism, dreams, and disillusionment may not be quite the show-stopping masterpiece that "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" is, yet it deserves to be read for its excellent characterization and deep truth.

Of Betty Smith's four novels, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" is second-best only to "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" ("Joy in the Morning" and "Maggie-Now" ranking third and fourth).

It took Smith two decades and four books to finally give one of her main female characters a decent, normal husband, in "Joy in the Morning." In her first three novels, husbands are either losers or freaks. In "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," Francie's father (her mother's first husband) is a drunk loser. In "Maggie-Now," Maggie's father is an insufferable jerk and her husband is a weirdo slacker who charms with his looks and charisma but tortures Maggie with his asinine "free spirit" lifestyle. But wait till you get a load of Margy's husband in "Tomorrow Will Be Better." This guy is a real piece of work. Confused as to his sexual orientation, unable to make any emotional commitment, he gives most of his attention to his job and his mother while his wife lies in a dreary slum clinic having a miscarriage.

Since so much of Smith's fiction is drawn from her own experience, the suffering most of her women characters go through at the hands of their egregious husbands makes one wonder what her first marriage was like.

Except for a couple of digressions into the life stories of peripheral characters, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" is strongly written and, like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," vividly evokes the lives of the Irish lower class in early-twentieth-century New York.

If you've read the other three books, expect many of the same elements here: an adorable female protagonist; bitter, poor, semi-educated Irish one or two generations above the shanty; baby birthing; and of course (with the exception of Carl in "Joy in the Morning") a husband you'd like to beat with a baseball bat and rescue the heroine from.

Toward the end, the story sinks into despair and even its final tiny offer of hope--the remote possibility of Margy's escape from her dead marriage to a new relationship with a rather dull adult mama's boy--would be pitiful except that in comparison to the moribund union she's stuck in it would be a step upward.

There is something about the way Betty Smith writes that just pulls me deep into her life. I say "her life" because we are getting slices of her life in each of her novels. {"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Joy in the Morning" are the most directly autobiographical.} Even though her prose are direct and her stories are deceptively simple, I cannot put her books down. I am there with her characters, inside their lives as they are living them.

Like in "Angela's Ashes," the Irish/American impoverished desperation and the raw immediacy of young life are stark and vivid in "Tomorrow will be Better." Parents who never had a chance to develop emotional and physical resources themselves, are brutal toward their children. The children have not lost hope for a better life, but they see people who have given up all around them. As a prejudiced on-looker, I am driven to hope that they get the opportunity to be loved and loving and rise above their parents' frightening existence.

This is just as riveting as the rest of her books. I only wish that there were more!

The first in a series of books collecting stories about The Starfleet Corp of Engineers, "Have Tech, Will Travel" is an excellent way to get things going.

Writer/Editor Keith R.A. DeCandido keeps continuity between the stories and amongst the various writers tight, with varying degrees of success in terms of some writer's giving voice to certain characters.

The book collects four stories: The Belly of the Beast, by Dean Wesley Smith, Keith R.A. DeCandido's Fatal Error, Christie Golden's Hard Crash and Interphase: Book One by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.

Story #1, The Belly of the Beast, is the weakest in terms of character voice for me. Picard didn't sound like Picard to me and I had a hard time accepting Sonya Gomez, one of the weakest Next Generation characters ever created (and mercifully removed from the series quickly), as a leader. Smith's story did little to alleviate that concern for me. Also, with so much of the story geared toward introductions and character thought patterns, it was difficult to get a strong feel for it. However, I must give credit where credit is due. Smith's grasp of atmosphere and dread are palpable and the scene in the belly of the beast is unnerving and terrifying. The final scenes definitely make this story worth the time. It also sets up the issues with one of the main characters for the rest of the series. A good starting off point.

Story #2 is DeCandido's FATAL ERROR. This story was gripping from beginning to end, with the sentient computer being a very interesting character in its own right. Keith has written a timely story that touches on our own society's issues with religious orthodoxy and the result of a people struggling between pious fervor and the stagnation of the culture of an entire world. This is a very good story.

However, it doesn't beat the emotional power of story #3, Hard Crash, by Christie Golden. A heart-wrenching story of friendship and loss (hate the title of this piece though...one of only two faults of this story, in my opinion), Golden has crafted an intriguing mystery with another sentient machine (the other fault aside from the titel) and how it deals with death. This is an obvious vehicle for one of the main characters of the series who is also struggling with this loss. The end doesn't feel cheap or tacked on, but is a logical and emotional continuation of the overall series. VERY well done and the highlight of this collection.

Story #4 is a very well written story called Interphase: Book One. My only issue with this story is that it is outdated due to an episode of Enterprise that places the object of the story in a completely different time and space. However, taken as a story in and of itself (ignoring the canon of the television series), Ward and Dilmore give us an intriguing look at another long-known, but rarely seen, alien species, the Tholians.

All in all, the stories are very well written but suffer from the "introduction phenomenon" of constantly reminding us who these characters are (as if the stories were all written simultaneously and each writer or writing team wasn't sure if the others would provide the information). It sometimes made for redundant reading, but the stories told were good enough and well written enough for this to be a negligible detraction.

Have Tech, Will Travel is a solid four story book, with new characters and some old (or very old in one instance) characters returning as well. I definitely look forward to reading the next collection and thank the authors for a great job!

I picked up _Have Tech, Will Travel_ and couldn't put it down. I found myself thinking "this is what Enterprise should be!"

What put me off originally besides the techy sounding title was the fact that it was compiled into novellettes, billed as short stories by different writers. I really don't like short stories because, you know, they just get interesting and then they end. But the way it's put together it's really rather seemless and continues the character's stories into each new novelette even if the situtations change.

Each story was wonderfully surprising, high quality adventure Trek, with things to think about. I was surprised by each new twist in each story, kept on the edge of my seat and fell in-like with each new/old character. The decisions that each character maked is logical and the captain is admirable. I like that Scotty shows up in each story, even if it's just on the viewer, though I'd absolutely love to see him get more involved with a few storylines. These authors can write Scotty and LaForge so well you can hear their voices in your head.

Speaking of that, I loved the way the creators of the series and the writers used familiar characters to introduce new ones. I was very happy with the way Picard's adventure was turned over to Captain Gold. I liked that the new characters actually live up to the admiration of the original characters like Picard. When the old characters commented on how much they admired so and so, it wasn't just to lend credibility to a shallow character, but because the characters were so good any way the comments only added to the depth of the new characters.

Geordi gets "stuck" helping the da Vinci crew for three of the stories. It was nice to have "ensign" Commander Gomez be a little warry of her old commanding officer. This added a little depth to her character.... and well we all know everyone loves Georgi, so it was nice to see this little twist where he has to earn her trust back. Cool.

Hats off to the creators and writers of this, what should have been the newest tv series Trek. But I"m glad that its not seeing what they've done with Enterprise so far!

I am headed to the library tonight after work to get the second book. ...

Thanks,

Rosewelsh

What would Kirk, Piccard, or any of the others do if they woke up and couldn't get their morning tea? Call SCE. This book is great. Stories that show how important the engineer is to Star Fleet. With out them you go no where and get nothing done. I like this series a lot and it is not just because I am a techie or a trekie, they are good stories.

I loved the idea of a book about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers from the start. But I didn't find the stories engaging. Written as an anthology with a continuing cast and a common history there is a nice try at developing characters as the stories go along, but I didn't find the characters paricularly striking or original.

What really irritated me was that when I finally started to get into a story, the last one, 'Interphase', about attempting to recover the Defiant from the TOS episode the Tholian Web it suddenly stopped (with a cliff hanger) and says it will be continued in the NEXT volume. I'd like to see how it turns out but I wasn't impressed enough by the other stories in this volume to buy another.

This is the first book of a new series of Star Trek books, focusing on the "Starfleet Corps of Engineers", basically a group of troubleshooters who go in whenever there's a mechanical or alien technology problem that either can't be handled by a regular starship, or (more rarely) that COULD possibly have been handled by the regular starship, but there's actually enough time to call for specialists (usually, these things are sufficient crises that if the regular ship CAN handle them, they have to.)

This book was composed of four mid-length stories (longer than "short stories", but not novel-length) each written by a different author, which together follow a continuous time-line and thus more or less make up one book's worth of story. The writing is surprisingly even, given the different authors; the handoffs from each author to the next are seamless, and the writing itself is quite good. The characters are well-developed, a good mix of minor characters from various episodes on TV and new characters (although the first book begins with the Enterprise-E and crew for an introduction, and Geordi LaForge continues through the first three stories.) The plots, while not the MOST original I've ever seen, are good, workmanlike concepts, and the basic SCE concept is in many ways a marvellous return to early science fiction concepts, where there may be action and combat, but the ADVENTURE is in the discovery and the science.

So why is the rating only four stars, given how much good I have to say about the book? (And in fact, I thought harder about whether to knock it down to three than I did about granting it five.) Because the "ending" ISN'T one; they cut the last story off in mid-action in order to make a "tune in next week" cliffhanger to attempt to manipulate the reader into continuing to buy the following books of the series. I will do so, because I enjoyed the book as a whole, NOT because they left me hanging. I consider that a sufficiently cheesy scam to be worth the loss of AT LEAST one star, and demonstrates that they had no confidence in the quality of the series themselves (or they wouldn't have needed to use such a cheap scam.)

This whole series is interesting, and although it is fiction, there is quite a bit of accurate historical information, so it is a good history review along with an enjoyable story.

I love the Work and the Glory series, but this volume wasn't one of it's best. The plot of Volume Three moves a little too slowly for my taste. And the author has a tendency to repeat certain parts of the plot over and over again, which can be especially annoying for those of us who have read the first two volumes. But if you plan on reading the rest of the series, it's not going to make a whole lot of sense to you unless you get through this book. The characters of Benjamin and Joshua undergo several drastic changes during this chapter of the saga. And, I must admit, for all of the plot's plodding, this volume had a very satisfying ending. It's an interesting enough story; it just has less action than most of the other books in the series.

I really enjoyed Truth Will Prevail, third volume in the Work and the Glory series. It not only provides historical information about the of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It gives an inside look at the struggles and difficulties of the church in a fun and interesting way. Lund, describes the character's joys and sorrows in a way that you feel that they're your own joys and sorrows too. It would also give a someone not a member more information about the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints that is often misunderstand. They may also find answers to their questions, if they have any.

In volume three, Truth Will Prevail, it contiues the story of a fictional family. A family who is acquainted with Joseph Smith the leader of the church and the restoration of the gospel. This refers to the establishment of the church. It gives detail on the events that occurred in the world in this period of time, that affected the Church. In this volume, most of the characters are confronted with new struggles and joys that will leave you wanting to read more.

I think that it's a great book for all ages.

The author does a good job of engaging the reader in a story that is interesting atleast superficially. Taking the LDS Church's official version of it's history and putting characters into the mix, this book will be widely read by the faithful. However anyone who has done even a modicum of reading on Mormon religious history will recognize the flaws in this faith-promoting story. There are serious scholarly works on Mormon history such as "Mormon Hierarchy Extenstions of Power", "Mormon Hierarchy Origins of Power", "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins", and "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View" that deal with the early history of the church in an honest and fortright manner that is not "anti-Mormon". After reading these and other books, "The Work and the Glory" series will be seen as institutionalized sugar-coating of history and little more. These books are for little lambs who are content to be spoonfed the "milk" of the gospel who have no desire to really look into the "meat" of the religion.

These books were amazing! It's as if the author almost convinces you that you were there. I'm a little picky when it comes to books, but I can definately tell you that this is one that I feel in love with. There were nights when I'd stay up until 4 in the morning reading-- and that's as a teenager in high school! I completely recommend everyone to read this, for it's hard to find books that are written better.

This review is mostly intended to address a common, and I think fair, criticism of The Will to Believe, that being his tendency to make it easy to allow people to believe, in areas of religious metaphysics (and this is an important line to draw), whatever they want. My take is based on a couple of readings of both The Will to Believe, and James' Essays in Radical Empiricism, and is therefore not laborious or scholarly. It is simply my impression as a reader.

The first part of this impression is that James was simply not addressing the right audience for the above criticism to hold much weight. He was lecturing to the philosophy club at a university well known for its theology program; or he was lecturing to the Young Men's Christian Association; or he was speaking to a number of Unitarian ministers. In most cases, his lectures were aimed at those who either already believed in God, or who might want to believe in God if he hasn't been killed by Reason. James repeatedly admits that most of his arguments are negative--that is, they don't provide evidence *for* God (or religion in general), they're meant simply to show that such belief is not necessarily negated philosophically, that there's *room* for religious belief.

Also, in order to understand James' approach, one has to remember that he was a psychologist ("Father of American psychology", in fact) and keep in mind his radical empiricist philosophy and its most obvious consequent, pragmatism. To James, there could be no absolute standard for "proving" or "refuting" such metaphysical ideas as religion is based around. Truth, according to the theory of pragmatism, is defined in terms of the idea's consequences, how well employing an idea fulfills what we want to get out of it (to simplify quite a lot). James certainly didn't think all beliefs were created equal; the proposition "boiling an egg makes cats rain from the sky" is verifiably false by any empirical standards, especially pragmatic ones. It's just that religious consequences are either currently or permanently not subject to any form of empirical testing. Those familiar with Alfred Korzybski's work should know what I mean very well.

James' arguments following this point are made as a genuine psychologist, focusing not on telling us what we should or shouldn't be believing and what grounds we should make them on (note the "shoulds"). His focus is on how people *will* actually make these kinds of decisions, what the actual conditions of people's belief are. As someone studying social and cognitive psychology right now, I can say that James' work is still relevant and insightful in this area. His conclusions were that most people are going to believe what meets their goals, and that this largely consists of feeling comfortable--for some, even the use of rigorous logic has no other purpose.

But it is also true that James never went as far as he could with his reasoning. He was content to help Christians stay Christian, and focus on using his ridiculously keen mind to make room for religion.

There is, however, a converse side to this that few people notice. He allows people to stay comfortable with their beliefs, but this should also point out that *those* wackos over there are believing their religion on exactly the same foundation as you. He allows you to believe whatever you want, but he also allows you to believe whatever you *don't* want. His philosophy taken to extremes could even undermine the view that any belief is entirely rational. If James had gone farther than his own comfort zone with his philosophy, he could have been a Zen master or a Dionysian figure to rival Nietzsche.

I suggest that questions of which beliefs are "True", and whether you should change yours or not, should be categorically divorced from the scope of this book. My impression is that James was not trying to answer these questions, and that a criticism based on his failure to do so doesn't make sense. This work is epistemological method, not metaphysical conclusion.

My point is ultimately that there's more in James' work than what he himself does with it. His essay on Hegel's philosophy shows an understanding of what Gregory Bateson would call "logical levels" several decades after James' death. His approach to philosophy, ethics, and religion was one of personal responsibility and a purposeful orientation. He's not going to tell you what to believe or what not to believe, except perhaps that you may as well pick whichever beliefs you get the most out of (note that this attitude does not exclude, or even discourage, rational, reasoned decision making). For this, my respect for James increases, as he understood that on a certain epistemological basis, there is no grounds for mandating "Truths" that can never have any solid empirical basis--the world has had enough people doing that, and we don't really need more.

I can't help but think that the two reviewers from Los Angeles have got it wrong. Their claim seems to be that James allows us to believe whatever we desire despite evidence to the contrary. This couldn't be more wrong. One of James' central ideas is that the rational elements of man can only take him so far, that they can't answer all of life's questions, but this is not to say that we ought to do away with rationality. James argues that we have the "right" to make certain decisions (ones that are not answerable by reason alone) on passional grounds (given certain criteria that he goes into in more detail than I can here). In other words, we're using reason as an important guide before taking a non-rational or passional leap. It is important to understand that this is not restricted to matters of religion and in this regard a bit of an example might be helpful: Is it appropriate to wait for incontrovertible proof that someone loves you before you act to extend yourself and love them in return? Of course not, and I think this is the type of thing James is getting at. So, to conclude, I think this is a truly inspiring read and that James would be as critical of adopting beliefs that have little or no rational basis as our previously mentioned reviewers. But hey, maybe I'm wrong too.

Throughout his writings as a psycholgist and philosopher, William James was preoccupied with questions of religion. Put simply, James wrestled with questions about whether Darwin's theory of evolution and mechanistic, physiologically -based psychology (which he himself had done much to develop in his "Principles of Psychology) were inconsistent with a spiritual view of life. These questions came to the fore for James in the mid-1890s. In 1896, James wrote to a friend: "I am more interested in religion than in anything else, but with a strange shyness of closing my hand on any definite symbols that might be too restrictive. So, I cannot call myself a Christian, and indeed go with my father in not being able to tolerate the notion of a selective personal relation between God's creatures and God himself as something ultimate." (Quoted in Robert Richardson's "William James in the Maelstrom of American Modernism" at 364-365)

The book under review is a reasonably-priced edition of two works that James edited or wrote contemporaneously with the letter quoted above. In these works, James delved into religious questions and considered the consistency of a spiritual approach to life with a scientific outlook. The first "The Will to Believe and other Essays in Popular Philosophy" is a collection of nine essays written over a course of seventeen years -- from 1879 -- 1896 together with a Preface. The last of the essays is the controversial essay for which the collection is named, "The Will to Believe" which, James admitted, might better have been called "The Right to Believe." The second book, "Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine" consists of the text James delivered as the Ingersoll Lecture on Human Immortality at Harvard in 1897. James subsequently published this lecture as a short book in 1898. Both "The Will to Believe" and "Human Immortality" predate James's masterpiece in the study of religion, "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902).

The essays in "The Will to Believe" originated as lectures which James delivered to philosophical or theological clubs at various universities. The book is dedicated to James's friend, the philosopher Charles Peirce, to whom James says he owes "more incitement and help than I can express or repay." I was struck by how many of James's lasting themes had been developed in this relatively early book -- including his pluralism and what he calls in the Preface to the book his radical empiricism. The book illustrates James's efforts to weave together insights from psychology, philosophy, and religion without great regard for narrow lines of professional specialization.

The book tries to make a place for and show the importance to life of a belief in transcendent reality. James is far from endorsing any specific creed. In the Preface, James points out that his lectures had been addressed to sophisticated college audiences whose members would be troubled by the possibility of religious faith in an age of science and skepticism. James pointed out that if he had been addressing a different kind of audience -- his example is adherents of the Salvation Army -- the focus of his remarks would have been different, as James would have felt himself required to critique a too easy and too full belief as opposed to a skepticism about the possiblity of any belief. The thrust of the essays is thus to defend a right to believe, and it is important to remember that James is directing his remarks to the perceived needs of his hearers.

In making his argument, James discusses the nature and limitations of rationality and of what many people today term scientism -- the belief that only the physical sciences allow us to know what is true. The essays rely on James's psychology in showing the selective character of human awareness and perception. We see and focus upon reality in accordance with the questions we bring to it. James objects to the "monistic" view of reality which sees everything as part of a single interconnected fact or "block". He argues for pluralism and for attention to specific facts and detailed. Reality is not, for James, either an absolute block or a mere sand-heap of unconnected particulars. Rather, it exhibits loose interconnections and a spirit of, in words he would use again in his final essay of 1916, "ever not quite". Arguing against a mechanically deterministic universe, James argues for the possibility of chance using specific and homely examples. It is possible, James argues, that I could walk home down one street rather than another. It is possible, he claims, that a man who had brutally murdered his wife might have done something else, and that some other result would have been morally better than the killing. In understanding reality, James argues, we need to look forward rather than back, and use the energy and activity that may make our lives purposeful. If a person is caught on a cliff and needs to jump to safety, he will be more likely to do so if he believes he is able to do so. If he approaches the moment with trepidation, doubt and fear, fail he will. Thus, based upon a variety of considerations, James argues in these essays that it is rational for to adopt a believing attitude towards a transcendent source in reality and to take the ethical and metaphysical risks attendant upon such a belief. James does not always help himself in his choice of language, and his teaching has been subject to misunderstanding and ridicule. It is a difficult, challenging teaching which takes time to unpack and consider.

As its title suggests, the lecture on "Human Immortality" is more narrowly focused than "The Will to Believe", but its approach is much the same. James does not try to prove the existence or define the nature of an afterlife. He claims instead that his goal is simply to remove to alleged obstacles to a belief in immortality.

The larger part of the essay is devoted to the first obstacle which is based upon physiology and the functional nature of the mind. If the mind is simply a function of electrical-chemical reactions in the "gray matter" of the brain, what reason is there, James asks, for thinking that the mind survives the body. James's answer is based in part upon his reading of the German scientist and philosopher Gustav Fechner, whose work would also play an important role in James's later book, "A Pluralistic Universe." James distinguishes considering mind as a productive function of the brain from considering mind as a transmissive function. In both cases, thoughts in our everyday world are dependent upon neurology. But in the latter case, the universe may be viewed as itself spiritual in character, and that this character of the universe is transmitted through the brain to the individual person during life, and the character of the individual returns as part of this spirit upon death. I found this position intruiging because it seems to me to show that James' thought was greatly influenced by the pantheism or absolute idealism that he generally criticized severely in his writing. James is aware of this objection and tries to distinguish his thought from pantheism or idealism. I am not sure how well he succeeds. "Human Immortality" is a provocative essay, and it shows to me the seams of James' thinking between his commitment to pluralism and science on the one hand and spirituality on the other hand.

The other supposed objection to immortality that James considers is likewise based upon science. James argues that evolution has shown that human beings have developed from earlier forms of life, including earlier forms of humans. He also points to an expanded knowledge of the variety of human life and culture that, he claims, was unknown in biblical or medieval times. According to James, some critics might object to the teaching of human immortality because it would necessarily apply to too large a group. James replies to this alleged objection: "God, we can then say, has so inexhaustible a capacity for love that his call and need is for a literally endless accumulation of created lives. he can never faint or grow weary, as we should, under the increasing supply. His scale is infinite in all things. His sympathy can never know satiety or glut." James thus democraticizes and individualizes the possiblity of heaven. His approach here is similar to the approach he takes in his famous essay "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings".

The two works in this book tie together James's work in psychology with his ongoing interests in religion and philosophy. The beauty of James's prose should not blind the reader to the complexity of James's thought. These works require careful reading. This is an excellent work with which to begin a reading of William James.

Robin Friedman

Then look no further, you have found what you want (with a few trivial restrictions). James doesn't think you need to bother with things like evidence; as long as it is a "genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds", believe what you want!

What does it take to be a genuine option? Not much; James defines an hypothesis as "anything that may be proposed to our belief; and just as the electricians speak of live and dead wires, let us speak of any hypothesis as either live or dead. A live hypothesis is one which appeals as a real possibility to him to whom it is proposed."

He continues: "Next, let us call the decision between two hypotheses an option. Options may be of several kinds. They may be-1, living or dead; 2, forced or avoidable; 3, momentous or trivial; and for our purposes we may call an option a genuine option when it is of the forced, living, and momentous kind."

His thesis in his words:

"The thesis I defend is, briefly stated, this: Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, "Do not decide, but leave the question open," is itself a passional decision,-just like deciding yes or no,-and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth."

To be "living", all it takes is for you to be willing to think it possible, which will apply to just about anything you want to believe. To be "forced", just oppose it to rejecting what you want to believe (because you are "forced" to either believe what you want or you will not believe it; there is no other alternative). To be "momentous", it has to be important to you, which will apply to everything that really matters to you that you want to believe. Now, all you have to do is pick something for which you can have no evidence, and then you can believe it, according to James. So he is telling you, practically, believe whatever you want to believe, as long as it is beyond the reach of any evidence.

It should be no surprise that many people would welcome such garbage, since James appears to justify believing what you want. The trouble is, people believing what they want and ignoring evidence and reason has led to crusades, witch burning, the Inquisition, etc. (After all, what test can you have to determine whether or not God wants you to expel the 'infidels' from the 'holy land', or whether someone is a 'witch' or not, or whether someone is a 'heretic'? You'll never believe any such stuff if you base all of your beliefs upon evidence, and consequently you will not be as much of a danger to society.) Of course, James wrote after many of those activities, so we cannot blame him for what others did before he wrote his essay. However, following his advice, one could do all of the above. We can blame him for that.

James is very good at making people feel comfortable with their current prejudices, and for that, many praise him.

A rather basic demonstration of one of the problems of following James comes up as soon as one asks which set of beliefs one wants to believe. Should you be a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Moslem, an agnostic, an atheist, or something else? Well, James is absolutely no help in finding out which of these might be true; he basically tells you to believe whichever one you want. Such advice is useless for discovering the truth about such important matters; he is telling everyone to just go along with whatever prejudices they prefer. And if your preferred prejudice leads to the torture and killing of 'infidels', well, James has nothing to say about that. He tells you to believe at your own risk what you will, but ignores the rather obvious risks to others. It is difficult to imagine a worse essay than "The Will to Believe".

If someone tries to defend James by claiming that you need to understand James' "pragmatism" to understand "The Will to Believe", you should realize that pragmatism is not mentioned in this essay, which was first given as a lecture, and is the first essay in the book THE WILL TO BELIEVE AND OTHER ESSAYS IN POPULAR PHILOSOPHY. James developed those ideas later (PRAGMATISM came out many years later). Furthermore, James mentions in "What Pragmatism Means" (in PRAGMATISM) that no one knew what pragmatism was at the time when "The Will to Believe" came out (he does not mention the essay by name; you have to compare the dates he mentions with the date of this essay). So James did not require an understanding of pragmatism to