Pragmatism

In The Will to Believe (Is Life Worth Living?, IV), William James writes:

Suppose, for instance, that you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap. Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself, and think of all the sweet things you have heard the scientists say of maybes, and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll in the abyss. In such a case (and it belongs to an enormous class), the part of wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by such belief is the need fulfilled. Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall irretrievably perish. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. You make one or the other of two possible universes true by your trust or mistrust,—both universes having been only maybes, in this particular, before you contributed your act.

I’ve come across a similar idea in this podcast: that the fact of believing in something makes it more likely to happen. This can be true in mountaineering (James’ example), sport (as in the podcast), or in business, which I’ve always thought takes extraordinary self-belief: most businesses fail, so one has to wilfully ignore the laws of probability in order to start a new one, yet countless people do, and society benefits from their appetite for risk.

As someone who tends towards “rationalism” (using the term colloquially), I struggle to understand this impulse. How does one ignore reality and leap ahead into something, convincing oneself that is true? And, at what point should reality be allowed to once again influence one’s decision-making? The perenially loss-making business foolhardily propelled into an avalanche of red ink comes to mind.

This is also relevant in what we might might call “self-help”. Common advice goes that one should “be oneself” and not worry about what other people think. And sure, confidence is attractive. But judgements from others are also a way in which society communicates; obviously one doesn’t want to entirely cut oneself off from what others think. Say someone has an intensely annoying laugh, something which causes anyone with normal hearing deep psychic pain - wouldn’t it be more reasonable for him to try change it, rather than soldier on believing that others should just accept him?

But maybe I’m too rational to understand all this…