ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that ‘faith’ in the Jamesian mind is complex and diverse and that features of this idea hold a basic function within human nature. It reveals how the biological and theological roots to James’s thinking emerge in his early work and become manifest in The Varieties ; in short, The Principles and the early physiological discussions are key to The Varieties. It is possible to characterise James’s discussion of ‘faith’ into two broad sets of discussion, propositional logic and phenomenological affectivity, which in turn attract different scholarly analysis. The idea of faith as part of human nature, often neglected in the faith-belief focus, is related to the discussion of the will in The Principles, where people find discussion of faith in terms of forces of will, which includes the religious life.
