Reflex Action and Theism
E661614
"Reflex Action and Theism" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the implications of automatic, reflexive human behavior for religious belief and the concept of God.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Reflex Action and Theism canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7410856 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Reflex Action and Theism Context triple: [The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, hasEssay, Reflex Action and Theism]
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A.
The Coherence of Theism
The Coherence of Theism is a major work of analytic philosophy of religion in which Richard Swinburne rigorously examines whether the central claims of traditional theism are logically consistent and intelligible.
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B.
Man’s Vision of God and the Logic of Theism
"Man’s Vision of God and the Logic of Theism" is a philosophical work that develops Charles Hartshorne’s process-oriented, neoclassical conception of God and offers a rigorous logical defense of theism.
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C.
God and Other Minds
"God and Other Minds" is a 1967 philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that argues belief in God can be rationally justified in a way analogous to belief in other minds.
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D.
The Analytic Theist
The Analytic Theist is a collection of essays and interviews by philosopher Alvin Plantinga that explores and defends the rationality of theistic belief using tools of contemporary analytic philosophy.
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E.
On Faith and Reason
"On Faith and Reason" is a section of the First Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution *Dei Filius* that articulates the Catholic Church’s teaching on the harmonious relationship between human reason and divine revelation.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Reflex Action and Theism Target entity description: "Reflex Action and Theism" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the implications of automatic, reflexive human behavior for religious belief and the concept of God.
-
A.
The Coherence of Theism
The Coherence of Theism is a major work of analytic philosophy of religion in which Richard Swinburne rigorously examines whether the central claims of traditional theism are logically consistent and intelligible.
-
B.
Man’s Vision of God and the Logic of Theism
"Man’s Vision of God and the Logic of Theism" is a philosophical work that develops Charles Hartshorne’s process-oriented, neoclassical conception of God and offers a rigorous logical defense of theism.
-
C.
God and Other Minds
"God and Other Minds" is a 1967 philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that argues belief in God can be rationally justified in a way analogous to belief in other minds.
-
D.
The Analytic Theist
The Analytic Theist is a collection of essays and interviews by philosopher Alvin Plantinga that explores and defends the rationality of theistic belief using tools of contemporary analytic philosophy.
-
E.
On Faith and Reason
"On Faith and Reason" is a section of the First Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution *Dei Filius* that articulates the Catholic Church’s teaching on the harmonious relationship between human reason and divine revelation.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (39)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ psychological essay ⓘ |
| addresses |
compatibility of automatic action with theism
ⓘ
tension between mechanistic explanations of behavior and religious belief ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
American philosophy
ⓘ
psychology of William James ⓘ |
| author | William James NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| concerns |
determinism and freedom
ⓘ
human agency ⓘ psychological basis of belief ⓘ religious experience ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| explores |
how automatic mental processes relate to theistic belief
ⓘ
implications of reflexive behavior for belief in God ⓘ |
| field |
philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of mind ⓘ psychology ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophy of religion
ⓘ
psychology of religion ⓘ |
| hasAuthorNationality | American ⓘ |
| hasAuthorProfession |
philosopher
ⓘ
psychologist ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
naturalistic approach to religious phenomena
ⓘ
pragmatic evaluation of religious concepts ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
19th-century experimental psychology
ⓘ
physiological theories of reflex action ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
automatic human behavior
ⓘ
concept of God ⓘ reflex action ⓘ relationship between psychology and religion ⓘ religious belief ⓘ theism ⓘ |
| philosophicalQuestion |
Can a mechanistic account of human behavior coexist with belief in God?
ⓘ
What is the status of theistic belief if much human conduct is reflexive? ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | pragmatism ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
The Varieties of Religious Experience
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
The Will to Believe NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Reflex Action and Theism Description of subject: "Reflex Action and Theism" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the implications of automatic, reflexive human behavior for religious belief and the concept of God.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.