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Month: December 2020

William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience

William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience

I have been reading William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). The book is interesting and thought-provoking, and covers a number of interesting subjects related to religion. In this passage (pp. 15-16), James discusses truth and feelings: Let us play fair in this whole matter, and be quite candid with ourselves and with the facts. When we think certain states of mind superior to others, is it ever because of what we know concerning their organic antecedents? No! it…

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Final Words From Burke

Final Words From Burke

To finish up my series of posts about Burke’s ’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), here are a few other assorted profound and interesting passages from Reflections. In this first passage (p. 14), Burke writes about being true to your proper character: Those who quit their proper character, to assume what does not belong to them, are, for thei greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character they assume. In this passage (pp….

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