ABSTRACT
This chapter uses William James’ notions of radical empiricism, will to believe, and pragmatism to illuminate the most significant aspects of a Toraja man’s “conversion” from wayward youth to guardian of ancestral authority, conversion from doubt or uncertainty of belief to more certainty of belief being a phenomenon James had a particular interest in. The analysis addresses questions of importance to both anthropology and philosophy: What makes life worth living? What are our obligations to others, and how do we reconcile conflicts among our obligations to others and to ourselves? To what extent are our lives shaped by our own actions and behaviors, whether wise or unwise, and to what extent are they shaped by forces or beings beyond our control or volition? How do we develop our understandings about the nature of the world and our place within it, and how do we know whether these understandings are correct?
