Belief

In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to personal attitudes associated with true or false ideas and concepts. Epistemology is concerned with delineating the boundary between justified belief and opinion, and involved generally with a theoretical philosophical study of knowledge.

Much debate in epistemology centers on four areas: (1) the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to such concepts as truth, belief, and justification, (2) various problems of skepticism, (3) the sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief, and (4) the criteria for knowledge and justification.

In the context of Ancient Greek thought, two related concepts were identified regarding the concept of belief: pistis and doxa.

Doxa (ancient Greek δόξα; from verb δοκεῖν dokein, "to appear", "to seem", "to think" and "to accept" ) is a Greek word meaning common belief or popular opinion.

Simplified, pistis refers to "trust" and "confidence", while doxa refers to "opinion" and "acceptance".

In sociology and psychology the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, fairness, or benevolence of another party.

Fodor argued that mental states, such as beliefs and desires, are relations between individuals and mental representations.

Some supporters of eliminativism argue that no coherent neural basis will be found for many everyday psychological concepts such as belief or desire, since they are poorly defined.

Beliefs are sometimes divided into core beliefs (that are actively thought about) and dispositional beliefs (that may be ascribed to someone who has not thought about the issue).

Epistemology is concerned with delineating the boundary between justified belief and opinion, and involved generally with a theoretical philosophical study of knowledge.

In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology; the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as "justified true belief", though this definition is now thought by some analytic philosophers to be problematic because of the Gettier problems, while others defend the platonic definition.

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the psychological stress experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

This theory of knowledge suffered a significant setback with the discovery of Gettier problems, situations in which the above conditions were seemingly met but where many philosophers disagree that anything is known.

Attributed to American philosopher Edmund Gettier, Gettier-type counterexamples (called "Gettier-cases") challenge the long-held justified true belief (JTB) account of knowledge.

There are several techniques for individuals or groups to change the beliefs of others; these methods generally fall under the umbrella of persuasion.

Persuasion can attempt to influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors.

Religious belief refers to attitudes towards mythological, supernatural, or spiritual aspects of a religion. Religious belief is distinct from religious practice and from religious behaviours – with some believers not practicing religion and some practitioners not believing religion.

Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.

Since "belief" is an important aspect of mundane life, according to Eric Schwitzgebel in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a related question asks: "how a physical organism can have beliefs?"

So, like other propositional attitudes, belief implies the existence of mental states and intentionality, both of which are hotly debated topics in the philosophy of mind, whose foundations and relation to brain states are still controversial.

There are several paradigmatic states of mind that an agent has: love, hate, pleasure and pain, and attitudes toward propositions such as: believing that, conceiving that, hoping and fearing that, etc.

Without qualification, "belief" normally implies a lack of doubt, especially insofar as it is a designation of a life stance.

It involves the presuppositions and theories upon which such a stance could be made, a belief system, and a commitment to potentially working it out in one's life.

In practical everyday use however, belief is normally partial and retractable with varying degrees of certainty.

Certainty is an epistemic property of beliefs closely related to knowledge.

Without qualification, "belief" normally implies a lack of doubt, especially insofar as it is a designation of a life stance.

Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief.

Simplified, pistis refers to "trust" and "confidence", while doxa refers to "opinion" and "acceptance". Epistemology is concerned with delineating the boundary between justified belief and opinion, and involved generally with a theoretical philosophical study of knowledge.

Today, Plato's analogy of the divided line is a well-known illustration of the distinction between knowledge and opinion, or knowledge and belief, in customary terminology of contemporary philosophy.

Faith, derived from Latin fides and Old French feid, is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as confidence or trust in a particular system of religious belief.

So, like other propositional attitudes, belief implies the existence of mental states and intentionality, both of which are hotly debated topics in the philosophy of mind, whose foundations and relation to brain states are still controversial.

Religious belief is distinct from religious practice and from religious behaviours – with some believers not practicing religion and some practitioners not believing religion.

Religious behaviours are behaviours motivated by religious beliefs.

The tendency to translate from belief (here: doxa – common opinion) to knowledge (here: episteme), which Plato (e.g. Socrates of the dialogue) utterly dismisses, results from failing to distinguish a dispositive belief (gr.

To illustrate the use of the Socratic method, a series of questions are posed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge.

In a notion derived from Plato's dialogue Theaetetus, where the epistemology of Socrates (Platon) most clearly departs from that of the sophists, who at the time of Plato seem to have defined knowledge as what is here expressed as "justified true belief".

Many have interpreted Plato as stating—even having been the first to write—that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view that informed future developments in epistemology.

Belief is the attitude that something is the case or true.

Because goals are based, in part on beliefs, the success or failure at a particular goal may contribute to modification of beliefs that supported the original goal.

Efficient goal work includes recognizing and resolving all guilt, inner conflict or limiting belief that might cause one to sabotage one's efforts.

The antonym of "orthodox" is "heterodox", and those adhering to orthodoxy often accuse the heterodox of apostasy, schism, or heresy.

It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs.