The Will to Believe

This book by William James was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Tim Ferriss. The people who vouched for it on air: Philip Goff. It comes up in conversations about brain health, consciousness, psychedelics. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

• “his great paper the will to believe which he later thought I think rightly should have been called the right to believe”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “Everyone should read William James. He's a patron saint of great intellectual thinking”
  Philip Goff · The Tim Ferriss Show · Apr 202500:59:12

  Said during "Exploring Consciousness and Non-Ordinary Religion, Panpsychism, and Heretical Ideas, Philip Goff". The episode features Philip Goff: Philosopher and academic who has built his career defending panpsychism, the view that consciousness goes all the way down to the fundamental building blocks of reality. Author of Galileo's Error and Why? The Purpose of the Universe. Philosopher Philip Goff makes the case for panpsychism, explores consciousness and quantum mechanics, and shares his return to a heretical Christianity.