Belief
Something a person holds to be true. Beliefs are often inherited long before they are examined.
What the essays say
The first essay starts here. It lists where beliefs come from (family, education, culture, religion, experience, trusted authorities) and asks whether the confidence we feel in them has been earned.
They had gradually become mine, but I had yet to stop and deliberately determine exactly why I believed them, or whether my perceived confidence in them was justified.
Where people disagree
- Some philosophers treat belief as all or nothing: you either hold something true or you do not. Others describe it in degrees of confidence, closer to a probability than a switch.
- Traditions differ on what makes a belief justified. Some ask for evidence and reasons; others give weight to testimony, tradition, or faith, especially where direct evidence is hard to come by.
- Psychologists add that people rarely reason their way into most beliefs. We absorb many of them socially, which is part of why examining them feels uncomfortable.
