Is Life Worth Living?

Commentary on essay Is Life Worth Living by William James

The essay asks the titled question in a certain context. Even in his time around 1896 much philosophical ground has been ceded by the knowledge gained by science. We can no longer think like we attribute to the medieval ages. His example is how we cannot view the circularity of a heart valve as a sign from God because we know it now to be just flesh.

Because we've ceded an old world view that saw God as the highest good, and nature God's perfection in material to a frightening multiplicity of causes that don't have one observable source, we can feel a sense of nakedness and lack of necessity.

Science imposes material and empirical perspectives on life, yet it also gives a sense it's knowledge is almost complete.

I have heard more than one teacher say that all the fundamental conceptions of truth have already been found by science and that the future has only the details of the picture to fill in.

This canned perfection is also a cause for despair as it removes our position to perfection. There is a method but it is alienating and seems to work autonomously. What makes it not fully autonomous is it requires our contribution of observation and this also creates boundaries for us to know what isn't observable.

James answer to the bleakness illustrated is a way out. Like David Hume, James doesn't view perspectives necessarily given by law but something you can backtrack and find some orientation. He views science as a 'private personal appetite for evidence of a certain peculiar kind'. His way out is to see science as a creaturely endeavor and to see through grandiose claims especially when the outcome truly damages us morally and even invading our personal space typically claimed for relaxation and centers of our private world.

I refuse to believe that the room is getting cold, I leave the windows open and light no fire just as if it still were warm.

This despondency has a location and it is our house that should protect us from nature. The message is no mistake as science's method is to observe nature and define causes based on what is provided for our senses. James asks us to keep alive a perspective that appreciates what cannot be observed directly and what philosophy and religion focus on. When we orient our lives this way we do not feel uneasy in our homes.

James, William. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy Human Immortality. New York, Dover Publications, 1956.