) You are the philosopher and psychologist William James (born 1842). Like other “pragmatist” philosophers—the rather ugly name of the distinctively American movement of thought to which you belong—you have a bone to pick with the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, genius though he was. Toward the beginning of his masterpiece Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), Descartes writes: My reason tells me that as well as withholding assent from propositions [in your terminology, “hypotheses” (William James)] that are obviously false, I should also withhold it from ones that are not completely certain and indubitable. But Descartes is dead (died 1650), so there is no debating with him. Yet you are a great letter writer, like so many of your generation—so why not write a letter to Descartes? It can’t be sent, of course, but you can write it as if you intend to send it and as if Descartes were alive still to read it. So, write that letter. Explain to Descartes your reasons for disagreeing with the claim of his quoted above. Draw extensively from your own essay “The Will to Believe.” (For example, explain to Descartes the different kinds of “hypotheses” that you distinguish: live vs. dead, etc.) Be sure to give lots of examples in support of your thinking! Also, anticipate and seek to counter the objections that you imagine Descartes would raise.
