Britannica Sources used in this answer

Why did William James decide to believe in free will in 1870?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

In 1870, William James was suffering from a period of severe depression and "phobic panic" that had left him in a state of semi-invalidism. During this time, he was deeply influenced by the writings of the French philosopher Charles Renouvier, a Kantian idealist.1

James decided to believe in free will as a deliberate, pragmatic resolution to his personal crisis, famously stating, "my first act of free will shall be to believe in free will". By making this choice, he sought to abandon the determinism—both the scientific variety he had encountered during his medical and physiological training and the metaphysical "block universe" theories—that he felt contributed to his mental distress. This decision served as a turning point in his life, providing the propulsion for his later revolutionary work in psychology and philosophy.1