Bibliography

Hume's Argument against Miracles, and the Idea of Natural Law (Hume)

Inference is any act of deliberate assent, in any degree, however slight, which a man accords to a proposition because he thinks that assent warranted by his already accorded assent to another proposition or propositions, called the premises. It is one act of inference to adopt a hypothesis on probation. Such an act may be called an abduction. It is an act of the same kind, when a hypothesis is merely suggested as possible worth consideration. For even then some degree of favor is extended to it.

A state of belief in a proposition is such a state that the believer would on every pertinent occasion act according to the logical consequence of that proposition, He has a habit, and the proposition describes in abstract terms what sort of a habit it is. But for genuine belief, the man must not only have the habit, but must be aware of having it, and must be fully satisfied with having it. I will not say that no more than that is involved in saying that a man believes a proposition, but I think we may say that that constitutes practical belief.

A state of belief is when a man has a habit, knows he has it, and is satisfied with having it. [—] A man believes in a proposition when he is, and knows he is, and is satisfied to be in such a state that he will act on every pertinent occasion in such ways as would result as consequences of that proposition, taken in connected with other propositions he believes.

A habit is a state of a man in consequence of which he will on occasions of a certain description act in a certain general way.

Inference is any act of deliberate assent, in any degree, however slight, which a man accords to a proposition because he thinks that assent warranted by his already accorded assent to another proposition or propositions, called the premisses.

A state of belief in a proposition is such a state that the believer would on every pertinent occasion act according to the logical consequence of that proposition, He has a habit, and the proposition describes in abstract terms what sort of a habit it is. But for genuine belief, the man must not only have the habit, but must be aware of having it, and must be fully satisfied with having it. I will not say that no more than that is involved in saying that a man believes a proposition, but I think we may say that that constitutes practical belief.

…a quarter of a century ago I was led to the doctrine and maxim of right thinking that, if we search out all the practical consequences of a conception, we have in their aggregate the entire meaning of that conception. This doctrine, known as pragmatism, has certainly found some redoubtable defenders. Of the immediate utility of the maxim in the study of philosophy, nobody who has had experience in such use of it is ever likely to speak lightly. I believe, too, that it suggests a conception of the nature of intellect, and a theory of the relation of thought to the body, from which psychologists have still something to learn.