• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.116
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• pp.207-224
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• 2010

Belief is generally understood as a mental phenomenon which is aimed to attain objective information of the world. Thus, the content of belief is not something that can be manipulated or created by men. The primary function of belief in a word is to represent the world correctly. Now, William James in his "The Will to Believe" challenges this view. According to James, one can come to believe something by choosing to believe it. And he argues for his position by criticizing W. K. Clifford who wrote an essay entitled "The Ethics of Belief". In this paper, I examine both arguments given by them and show whose position is more convincing.