Re: dhw--Epistemological Framework (Belief) (Humans)

by dhw, Saturday, January 22, 2011, 22:41 (5053 days ago) @ xeno6696

I've defined belief as: "possession of information which is thought to be true by some but not all individuals who are aware of it".-DAVID: I've followed your discussion without stepping in, but now as a lurker, I must. Believers are those who accept without question certain 'facts' , as they view it. They recognize that others do not accept their point of view. Therefore they recognize they do not have possession of a majority belief. They understand they have faith. Your sentence implies much of this, but leaves out the faith part. Strong belief in disputed facts requires faith. As an example, I don't accept the miracles of the Catholic Faith, but they do.-Faith is frequently associated with religion, and in that context entails belief in God. It's still a form of belief, and as such is thought to be true by some but not all individuals who are aware of it. At this stage of my attempt to establish an epistemological framework, I'm hoping to get agreement on my definition. Then I can move on to distinguishing the different factors which underlie belief, and hence the different categories.-Perhaps, though, it might be useful even at this stage to analyse the implications of what you've said, since they highlight the need for a clear epistemology. Firstly, I would define a fact as a piece of information which is known to be true, i.e. it would come under knowledge and not belief, and would therefore not be disputed. (If it is disputed, it has not been accepted as being true by all those who are aware of it.) Secondly, the example of miracles illustrates how beliefs may be derived from beliefs, and at every stage are subject to acceptance/rejection by individuals. 1) You must believe in God. 2) You must believe in the authenticity of the texts. 3) You must believe in the translation/ interpretation of the texts. 4) You must believe in the reality of events that run counter to reason and experience. These are some of the factors that I hope to systematize in my next post ... but first we need to agree on definitions.-Matt's response simply muddies the waters. Faith is a form of belief, and if we are to establish an epistemological framework, we MUST have a definition. Of the four "categories", only 1) is a belief:-1) "The stars will show me my destiny." 
2) "If all goats are bofurs and all bofurs are yaks, then all goats are yaks." Logical fallacy.
3) "The sun rose yesterday." Fact/knowledge (unless you are reverting to a philosophical approach to defining knowledge, which I thought we had agreed would lead us nowhere).
4) "You have no idea what it feels like to be unloved!" I have no idea what sort of belief this is meant to illustrate, unless it's my belief that I can read your mind!-If you do not accept my definition of belief, please explain why, and please offer us a definition of your own.