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Why trust science? Why should science have more authority than'other ways of knowing?'Is science merely a social construct? Or even worse: a tool of oppression? This book boldly takes on these and other explosive questions—lodged by ideologues on the left and the right—and offers readers a well researched defense of science and a polemic addressed to its detractors. Why It's OK to Trust Science critically examines the recent history of critiques of science, including those in academia from scholars like Bruno Latour, Simon Schaffer, and Thomas Kuhn. It then presents case studies drawn from recent advances in the field of dinosaur paleontology, showing how science generates objective knowledge, even during revolutionary episodes. The book next looks at how that same objective knowledge can be gained even when researching extremely complex issues, using climate science to distinguish between genuine skepticism –upon which science depends–from dogmatic denial. The book is for anyone who needs thoughtful, razor sharp responses to the detractors of science—whether they be anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, profit-seeking businessmen, or published relativists in the knowledge-making industries. Key Features: Highly readable and accessible without oversimplifying the complexities of scientific research Exposes the many flaws of the'undertermination thesis'—the argument that indefinitely many hypotheses are compatible with any body of evidence Explores whether moral and other value-laden questions can be answered by science Includes three appendixes online: (1) Summary of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; (2) Rorty on Losing the World; (3) 21 Facts in Support of Human-Caused Climate Change

The relationship between faith and reason is multifaceted. Faith transcends reason in that it is more than reason alone can contain or fully guarantee, yet it is neither unreasonable nor something to which reason is irrelevant--and reason says some pretty fine things about it! This volume updates nine previously published articles on faith and reason by a Christian philosopher who has been studying these matters for two decades, alongside one new essay and a philosophical dialogue. These articles explain and integrate key ideas on faith and reason, including Alvin Plantinga's account of how Christian belief can be knowledge even without evidence; defenses of faith from Augustine and William James; accounts of empirical evidence for faith from different world religions; the distinction between faith and sight in the New Testament; the structure of the evidence for the authority of the Bible; the idea that faith transcends reason because some articles of faith are beyond human comprehension, even if we have evidence that they are true; and the nature of faith as a total commitment beyond what the evidence alone can guarantee.

Could a Good God Permit So Much Suffering? presents a debate over whether the degree and amount of moral evil that actually exists in our world is logically incompatible with the existence of the all-good, all-powerful God of traditional theism. James Sterba puts the case in favour of this proposition, on the basis that the evils of the world are so horrendous that their occurrence violates principles requiring the prevention of moral evil, conclusively showing the non-existence of an omnipotent and perfectly good God. In reply, Richard Swinburne argues that our major benefactors, parents and the State, have rights to permit us to suffer if doing so is necessary to secure some good for ourselves or others. Therefore, Swinburne claims, as so much greater a benefactor than are parents and the State, it follows that God has a far greater right to allow suffering to a high degree if allowing such suffering is the only logically possible way for God to secure some very great goods for ourselves or others. Further responses from both Sterba and Swinburne continue the debate, ensuring that all lines of argument are thoroughly explored.

This volume brings together recent work on the nature of belief, imagination, and delusion. Whilst philosophers of mind and epistemology employ notions of belief and imagination in their theorizing, parallel work seeking to make these notions more precise continues. Delusions are standardly taken to be bizarre beliefs occurring in the clinical population, which do not respond to evidence. The purpose of this collection of essays is to get clearer on the nature of belief and imagination, the ways in which they relate to one another, and how they might be integrated into accounts of delusional belief formation. The jumping off point is the idea that recent work in philosophy of mind and epistemology which has sought to characterize the nature of belief and imagination allows us to formulate the issues with new precision, by, for example, drawing on work concerning how imagination is involved in delusion formation, or work concerning how to properly distinguish imagination from belief. The volume also considers questions concerning imagination's architecture, the role of metacognitive error in our mental lives, how best to understand delusional experience, and the relationship between delusion and evidence. The contributors are ideally placed to explore these issues, both individually and as a collective. With interests spanning different disciplines (philosophy, psychology, cognitive science), and approaches (theoretical, empirically informed), the result is a rich and varied collection of insights.

This book explores both scientific and humanistic theoretical traditions in anthropology through the lens of ontology.The first part of the book examines different methods for generating valid anthropological knowledge and proposes a shift in current consensus. Drawing on Western scholars of antiquity and the medieval period and moving away from 20th-century theorists, it argues that we must first make ontological assumptions about the kinds of things that can exist (or not) before we can then develop epistemologies that study those kinds of things. The book goes on to apply the ontology-first theory to a set of case studies in modern day conspiracy theories, misinformation, and magical thinking. It asserts that we need to move away from unneeded metaphysical assumptions of conspiracy theories being misinformation and argues that reconstructing particular historical events can be a fruitful zone for application of quantitative methods to humanistic questions.Theorizing the Anthropology of Belief is an excellent supplementary suitable for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in anthropological theory.

We live in a secular age, a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairy tales behind, culturally and personally.Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world--in the West, at least--has become increasingly disenchanted.While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues that it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. Hunting Magic Eels shows us that with attention and an intentional, cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age. This new paperback edition includes a foreword from Sean Palmer as well as four new, additional chapters, including'Why Good People Need God,''Live Your Beautiful Life,'and'The Primacy of the Invisible.'

Is logic a good tool for making decisions? Can it make us better listeners and help us find coherence in views that we disagree with? Is Sherlock Holmes actually good at logic?Patrick Girard addresses these and other questions by presenting logic as the guardian of coherence. Logic, Girard argues, finds coherence in the patterns of reasoning across science, religion, and everyday decision making. It helps communities engage safely by replacing contentious debates with shared, constructive reasoning – logic provides neutral ground for the healthy pursuit of common goals and interests. Logic in the Wild employs common sense language, eschewing technical jargon, symbols, and equations. Girard's attention focuses on logic's power to find what unites the complex and the simple, the abstract and the concrete, the theoretical and the practical.In treating logic not as a passive subject to learn but as an active discipline to engage with, Logic in the Wild teaches us to identify patterns in our own reasoning, which inevitably helps us better confront questions central to everyday life.

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERMake the leap from average to exceptional and start living the remarkable life you were meant to lead Ever wonder what sets people like Steve Wozniak, Stacey Abrams, Mark Rober, and Jane Goodall apart? Why do some people seem to eat, sleep, and breathe “awesome?” In Think Remarkable, tech titan Guy Kawasaki teams up with Madisun Nuismer, producer of the Remarkable People podcast, to share invaluable knowledge from more than 40 years of working with game-changing organizations such as Apple, Canva, Google, Mercedes Benz, and Wikipedia, and delivers insights from a collection of amazing interviews that'll kick you into high gear and get you ready to start showing the world your best, most amazing self. Together the authors show you how to lead a fulfilling life by drawing on insights from working closely with some of the world's most remarkable people. You'll learn: How to find your own inner ass-kicker and unlock potential you never knew you were capable of Cultivate the resilience, grit, and fearlessness needed to overcome obstacles and setbacks Apply the lessons from the world's most innovative companies to your personal growth journey Make the leap from average to exceptional. Think Remarkable is more than a book—it's a way of life. It is the gotta-read-right-now book you can't afford to miss. So, grab a copy today and start making yourself—and the world—a whole lot more remarkable.

There are two tragedies in life: to live life believing God exists, and finding this to be an illusion, and to live life believing God does not exist, but finding that God does exist. Nonbelievers readily concede that belief in God is the more hopeful cosmovision, but the issue is if, in fact, this belief corresponds to reality. But can anything new be said on the issue of God's existence? Rather than arguing deductively, as is typical in philosophy, Belief or Unbelief innovates by following an inductive approach, as is typical in science, where it infers the existence of God as more reasonable in the light of philosophic considerations and the findings of modern science. Inferential arguments sacrifice rigor and definitive conclusions, but rather aim at arriving at the likelier conclusion. Belief or Unbelief concludes that belief in God is not only a more hopeful cosmovision than unbelief, but that it is also the more reasonable inference. It is addressed to intellectually curious and open-minded lay persons, believers and nonbelievers, courageous enough to reexamine their basic convictions.

In this book we shall be arguing, among other things, for a belief or set of beliefs that neither requires God or is necessarily incompatible with such a spiritual presupposition. It is our view that modern belief does not require God, but may, nevertheless let Him in if so desired. What is most important though is that belief be viewed as a metaphysical-existential category of being that precedes every other category. Thus, for a human to be a human at all he or she must first believe. Therefore I primarily write for those who are neither convinced by traditional religions or who have not yet been soundly converted by the New Atheists. I also write for those who in their hearts and minds waver between the practice and theories of modern science and the traditional contents and moral prejudices of ancient belief. Religion has not died. God is still with us. And faith continues to be a power in the world. And although there are many who believe they can do without all three of these things, there are, I suppose, many more who would welcome at least a convincing modern substitute for them.

Does your faith make room for questions?Everyone has doubts. Where is God when bad things happen? Does God hear our prayers? Is there a heaven? How can we know? Often, we treat such questions as the enemy of faith. But uncertainty doesn't mean our belief is lacking. Doubt can be a path to a deeper, richer encounter with God. In Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, join best-selling author and pastor Adam Hamilton as he discusses some of our most significant sources of doubt and shows how a steady trust in God can emerge from them. You will delve into questions like: “Does God exist? How can I know?” “Is the Bible true?” “Why do prayers go unanswered?” Hamilton approaches these sources of doubt with honesty and insight, drawing on the rich wisdom of the Bible, Christian tradition, and his experience walking with thousands of people on their spiritual journeys. Whether you're a longtime Christian or someone brand new to faith, this book will lead you to a trust in God that gives you the courage to ask tough questions. Though you may wrestle with doubt, you'll discover a faith that—rather than providing simple answers—includes belief and trust as well as uncertainty and mystery. The book can be used anytime throughout the year and can be read alone, used by small groups, or as an outreach gift for visitors. Components include a comprehensive Leader Guide, a six-session DVD featuring Adam Hamilton (with closed captioning), and a digital worship and sermon series, making this perfect as a group study and churchwide program done throughout the year.

To understand the nature of religious belief, we must look at how our minds process the world of imagination and make-believe.We often assume that religious beliefs are no different in kind from ordinary factual beliefs—that believing in the existence of God or of supernatural entities that hear our prayers is akin to believing that May comes before June. Neil Van Leeuwen shows that, in fact, these two forms of belief are strikingly different. Our brains do not process religious beliefs like they do beliefs concerning mundane reality; instead, empirical findings show that religious beliefs function like the imaginings that guide make-believe play.Van Leeuwen argues that religious belief—which he terms religious “credence”—is best understood as a form of imagination that people use to define the identity of their group and express the values they hold sacred. When a person pretends, they navigate the world by consulting two maps: the first represents mundane reality, and the second superimposes the features of the imagined world atop the first. Drawing on psychological, linguistic, and anthropological evidence, Van Leeuwen posits that religious communities operate in much the same way, consulting a factual-belief map that represents ordinary objects and events and a religious-credence map that accords these objects and events imagined sacred and supernatural significance.It is hardly controversial to suggest that religion has a social function, but Religion as Make-Believe breaks new ground by theorizing the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Once we recognize that our minds process factual and religious beliefs in fundamentally different ways, we can gain deeper understanding of the complex individual and group psychology of religious faith.

Building on the metaphor of Christianity as a house, two apologetics scholars invite doubters to leave the confines of late-modern evangelicalism for a deeper, more orthodox faith.

In this book, authors engage in an interdisciplinary discourse of theory and practice on the concept of personal conviction, addressing the variety of grey zones that mark the concept.Bias, Belief, and Conviction in an Age of Fake Facts discusses where our convictions come from and whether we are aware of them, why they compel us to certain actions, and whether we can change our convictions when presented with opposing evidence, which prove our personal convictions'wrong'. Scholars from philosophy, psychology, comparative literature, media studies, applied linguistics, intercultural communication, and education shed light on the topic of personal conviction, crossing disciplinary boundaries and asking questions not only of importance to scholars but also related to the role and possible impact of conviction in the public sphere, education, and in political and cultural discourse.By taking a critical look at personal conviction as an element of inquiry within the humanities and social sciences, this book will contribute substantially to the study of conviction as an aspect of the self we all carry within us and are called upon to examine. It will be of particular interest to scholars in communication and journalism studies, media studies, philosophy, and psychology.The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003187936/bias-belief-conviction-age-fake-facts-anke-finger-manuela-wagner

The most important questions in life are questions about what we should do and what we should believe. The first kind of question has received considerable attention by normative ethicists, who search for a complete systematic account of right action. This book is about the second kind of question. Right Belief and True Belief starts by defining a new field of inquiry named'normative epistemology'that mirrors normative ethics in searching for a systematic account of right belief. The book then lays out and defends a deeply truth-centric account of right belief called `truth-loving epistemic consequentialism.'Truth-loving epistemic consequentialists say that what we should believe (and what credences we should have) can be understood in terms of what conduces to us having the most accurate beliefs (credences). The view straight-forwardly vindicates the popular intuition that epistemic norms are about getting true beliefs and avoiding false beliefs, and it coheres well with how scientists, engineers, and statisticians think about what we should believe. Many epistemologists have rejected similar views in response to several persuasive objections, most famously including trade-off and counting-blades-of-grass objections. Right Belief and True Belief shows how a simple truth-based consequentialist account of epistemic norms can avoid these objections and argues that truth-loving epistemic consequentialism can undergird a general truth-centric approach to many questions in epistemology.

This book gives a general theory of rational belief. Although it can be read by itself, is a sequel to the author's previous book The Value of Rationality (Oxford, 2017). It takes the general conception of rationality that was defended in that earlier book, and combines it with an account of the varieties of belief, and of what it is for these beliefs to count as “correct”, to develop an account of what it is for beliefs to count as rational. According to this account, rationality comes in degrees: the degree to which one's beliefs counts as rational is determined by their distance from a corresponding probability function - where this distance is measured by those beliefs'“expected degree of incorrectness” according to the probability function; the account also involves an explanation of what determines exactly which probability function plays this role in each case, and of why this probability function should play this role. In developing and defending this account, new light is shed on several central epistemological issues. These issues include: the distinction between propositional and doxastic justification; the debates between internalism and externalism, and between foundationalism and coherentism; the significance - or lack of it - of the notion of'evidence'; the relationship between credences, full belief, inference, and suspension of judgment; the nature of the kind of possibility that is presupposed by the relevant sort of probability; and whether rationality is “diachronic” - so that the beliefs that it is rational for us to have now depend, in part, on the beliefs that we held in the past. Finally, some suggestions are made about how this theory bears on a range of further topics, including the defeasibility of inference, scepticism, and the analysis of knowledge.

How to analyze and reevaluate your Christian beliefs and experiences in the church while keeping the core of your faith intact.The number of Christians leaving the church today is significant. Many feel there is no place for them within the faith—they no longer feel at home in their church community or tradition. For various reasons, they are unsettled by the version of Christianity they've inherited.Stripping away the nonessential aspects of Christianity, Sean McDowell and John Marriott will help you navigate the jarring questions and cultural challenges that lead many to walk away from the faith. You'll come to recognize that there are other ways Christians throughout history have understood what faithfulness to Jesus looks like.Each chapter provides practical advice on how to disassemble, rethink, and reassemble beliefs that are truly Christian and culturally and personally relevant. You'll learn how you can continue to seek an authentic faith by:Establishing Jesus and his teachings as the foundation.Utilizing the creeds as boundary markers of what is essential.Seeing the entire Bible as a truthful revelation from God.Seeing Christianity as a historic and global tradition that encompasses diverse communities and viewpoints. The authors of this book can personally identify with the process of disillusionment that many young believers go through. They wrote Set Adrift as people who had to navigate their own way back through the fog of deconstruction. They wrote it to offer their own personal suggestions for what to do when you're not sure what to believe anymore.

Epistemology is not just about the nature of knowledge or the analysis of concepts such as'knows'and'justified'. It is also about what we ought to believe and how we ought to investigate and reason about what is the case. This is a study focused on these normative aspects of epistemology. More specifically, it is concerned with the nature of epistemic norms and their relation both to the value of knowledge and to the structure of cognitive agency. The first part develops a theory of doxastic agency according to which believers exercise agency in the ongoing activity of maintaining systems of belief. The second part defends an account of the grip epistemic norms have on us and the nature of our epistemic values. These are explained in terms of the way that a state, such as a person's belief, can be subject to robust social norms and be valued for its stability not only individually, but, crucially, within epistemic communities. The third part proposes some foundations for a meta-epistemological theory of epistemic discourse that takes seriously the idea that knowledge attributions are partly normative, and hence should be partly classified on the'ought'side of the division between claims about what reality is like, and claims about what people ought to do, think, and feel.

This volume argues that theistic philosophy should be seen not as an “armchair” enterprise but rather as a critical endeavor to bring philosophy of religion into close contact with emerging sciences of religion. This text engages with the rationality of religious belief by investigating central problems and arguments in philosophy of religion from the perspective of new naturalistic research. A central question the book analyzes is whether findings in cognitive science of religion (CSR) falsify or undermine religious ideas and beliefs. With regard to CSR, this volume offers a sustained and critical investigation of the neutrality and positive-relevance view, before offering a re-appraisal of the conflict view. The text argues that when scrutinizing these views, much more attention must be paid to specific normative premises that allow empirical findings to have epistemic relevance. A novel feature is the theoretical application of analytical epistemology in virtue-epistemology to the central question of whether CSR undermines, supports, or is neutral with respect to religious belief. This book appeals to upper-level students and researchers in the field.

Wir sind reicher denn je. Zumindest gemessen an jener freien Zeit, die als Grundvoraussetzung menschlichen Fortschritts gilt und in der wir Heilmittel gegen Krebs entwickeln, Kunstwerke erschaffen und die Welt zu einem besseren Ort machen können. Doch wie Gérald Bronner in seinem hochaktuellen und Augen öffnenden Buch zeigt, laufen wir Gefahr, diesen kostbaren Schatz zu verspielen, lassen wir zu, dass die Verlockungen der digitalen Welt den Wettbewerb um unsere Aufmerksamkeit gewinnen. 3,7 Stunden verbringen wir täglich vor Bildschirmen. Wir lesen Mails, schauen Videos, springen von einer Website zur nächsten, prüfen, wie viele Likes unser neues Profilbild hat, scrollen durch soziale Netzwerke, und selbst die Suche nach einem neuen Partner verlagert sich zunehmend in die digitale Welt. Wir swipen, klicken, liken, kommentieren und merken kaum, was es bedeutet, dass wir das Gros unserer freien Zeit in einer Welt zubringen, in der Hass, krude Theorien und Fake News oft mühelos Wahrheit, Wissenschaft und gute Argumente dominieren. In seiner Pathologie der digitalen Gesellschaft erklärt der renommierte Soziologe Gérald Bronner, gestützt auf soziologische, psychologische und neurowissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse, was unser Verhalten in der digitalen Welt über uns und unsere tiefsten Sehnsüchte offenbart.

Best-selling author Michael Shermer presents an overarching theory of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Nothing happens by accident, everything is connected, and there are no coincidences: that is the essence of conspiratorial thinking. Long a fringe part of the American political landscape, conspiracy theories are now mainstream: 147 members of Congress voted in favor of objections to the 2020 presidential election based on an unproven theory about a rigged electoral process promoted by the mysterious group QAnon. But this is only the latest example in a long history of ideas that include the satanic panics of the 1980s, the New World Order and Vatican conspiracy theories, fears about fluoridated water, speculations about President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and the notions that the Sandy Hook massacre was a false flag operation and 9/11 was an inside job. In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's 1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you (Watergate, Iran–Contra, and Afghanistan); and, tragically, some adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do certain personality traits. This engaging book will be an important read for anyone concerned about the future direction of American politics, as well as anyone who's watched friends or family fall into patterns of conspiratorial thinking.

Faith occupies an important place in human lives. It can be directed towards God, friends, political systems and sports teams, and is said to help people through crises and to motivate people to achieve life goals. But what is faith? Philosophers and theologians have, for centuries, been concerned with questions about the rationality of faith, but more recently, have focussed on what kind of psychological attitude faith is. The authors of this book bring together, for the first time, the different elements of this recent debate, staking out the different positions and arguments, and defending a novel ‘true grit'theory of faith, from which the rationality and language of faith are addressed from a fresh perspective. The book engages with a range of questions about the nature of faith, including: Does faith require belief? Is faith motivational? What is the relationship between faith, trust and hope? Do expressions of faith aim at the truth? And, in what sense is faith resilient? The authors defend a distinctive conception of faith involving resistance to psychological, practical and epistemic challenges, from which a novel account of the psychology and epistemology of faith is developed. The treatment of the topic draws extensively on the philosophy of mind, language and religion, and provides a map of this exciting field of study for newcomers to the philosophy of faith. A Philosophy of Faith will appeal to researchers and advanced students in philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and epistemology who are interested in the topic of faith.

A paradox lies at the heart of modernity: the simultaneous demand to create ideas to make us better humans and communities, along with the contrary imperative that we criticize all ideals, especially the ones we have created. In philosophy we see this paradox most acutely in figures like Immanuel Kant, who states that we cannot know the essence of things and yet we must retain old ideas – God, freedom, and the soul – in order to become better and more ethical humans. Or in Friedrich Nietzsche, whose eternal recurrence, a self-created myth whose sole purpose is to get us to see the value in the everyday. This basic scheme – belief and un-belief – is one of the fundamental elements of modernity, manifesting itself in the philosophies of Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault, along with the theologies of Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis, William James, Sallie McFague, and Philip Clayton.How do we live out the values we know to be constructions? This question holds captiveour ability to solve public goods problems and make our lives more meaningful. Instead of seeing this paradox of modernity as self-deception or bad faith, Zachary Simpson employs cognitive and social scientific research to explain how best to realize values that we know to be false: through art, community, and ritual. In Simpson's account, the values we construct must conform to narrative, be reinforced through community, and habituated through ritual. And yet modernity has also undermined collectivity and ritual. Thus arises the second paradox of modernity: the best tools we have for realizing values are those which devalue the individual modern subject.The last part of the book attempts to make three normative points regarding modernity. First, the modern, individualist subject is insufficient to realize the very values and aspirations of modernity. We must recognize that humans are collective and communal. Second, we cannot simply create values – they must arise in communities and be realized through narrative and ritual. And, third, if we are to live meaningful lives as contemporary meta-ethicists and positive psychologists argue, then such lives must include art, community, and ritual as a way to affirm and reinforce one's values.Let's Pretend is a statement about one of the dilemmas of the contemporary western world and how that dilemma is, and might be, resolved. How do we believe in the values that we know will make a better world, even if they are of our own making? We must do so, in part, by becoming less modern, by engaging with one another and imagining more.The book should serve as both an essay in the history of Western thought as well as a constructive argument about the nature of the modern epoch and what resources we have to realize the central aspirations of modernity. It aims to fill a critical lacuna in theoretical and philosophical approaches to modernity. While most texts focus on either the need for created values or the need to remedy modern subjectivity, few, if any, link the two problems together. Moreover, they do not ground their analyses in the social sciences and contemporary findings regarding the efficacy of narrative, communal action, and rituals.The book is unique, then, because it asks a central question – how do we believe in what we know to be false? – and because it answers this question using interdisciplinary methods that allow us to see the faultlines and paradoxes of our age.

Humans constantly search for and use information to solve a wide range of problems related to survival, social interactions, and learning. While it is clear that curiosity and the drive for knowledge occupies a central role in defining what being human means to ourselves, where does this desire to know the unknown come from? What is its purpose? And how does it operate? These are some of the core questions this book seeks to answer by showcasing new and exciting research on human information-seeking. The volume brings together perspectives from leading researchers at the cutting edge of the cognitive sciences, working on human brains and behavior within psychology, computer science, and neuroscience. These vital connections between disciplines will continue to lead to further breakthroughs in our understanding of human cognition.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Bad beliefs - beliefs that blatantly conflict with easily available evidence - are common. Large minorities of people hold that vaccines are dangerous or accept bizarre conspiracy theories, for instance. The prevalence of bad beliefs may be politically and socially important, for instance blocking effective action on climate change. Explaining why people accept bad beliefs and what can be done to make them more responsive to evidence is therefore an important project. A common view is that bad beliefs are largely explained by widespread irrationality. This book argues that ordinary people are rational agents, and their beliefs are the result of their rational response to the evidence they're presented with. We thought they were responding badly to evidence, because we focused on the first-order evidence alone: the evidence that directly bears on the truth of claims. We neglected the higher-order evidence, in particular evidence about who can be trusted and what sources are reliable. Once we recognize how ubiquitous higher-order evidence is, we can see that belief formation is by and large rational. The book argues that we should tackle bad belief by focusing as much on the higher-order evidence as the first-order evidence. The epistemic environment gives us higher-order evidence for beliefs, and we need to carefully manage that environment. The book argues that such management need not be paternalistic: once we recognize that managing the epistemic environment consists in management of evidence, we should recognize that such management is respectful of epistemic autonomy.

Blending the latest academic research with case studies of famous figures, this highly insightful book presents ‘doubt'as a central concept for psychology. It is a concept which has been oddly neglected in the past, despite its ubiquitous nature and far-reaching influence. Exploring everything from self-doubt and impostor syndrome to the weaponisation of doubt with respect to climate change and the marketing of cigarettes, bestselling author Geoffrey Beattie navigates readers through the various ways doubt can start and develop, changing the individual in the process. Written in Beattie's distinctive and engaging style, Doubt takes the reader into the lives of transformational thinkers, artists, scientists and writers to explore how and why doubt was crucial in their lives and how the likes of Kafka, Jung, Picasso and Turing succumbed to doubt or learned to control it. Beattie argues that doubt is central to the self; it can be either a safeguarding mechanism or a distraction, rational or irrational, systematic or random, healthy or pathological, productive or non-productive. The book helps readers to recognise how doubt may have been operating in their own lives and to identify how and when it has been used against us – for example, to prevent climate action – and at what personal and societal cost.Presenting a compelling case for why doubt cannot be ignored, this book is of major interest to academics from a wide range of disciplines, including social and cognitive psychology, clinical and counselling psychology, sport psychology, sociology, business studies, politics, art and literature, as well as the general public, who may well see something of themselves in its pages.

This book provides new answers to who and psychologically why individuals sometimes adopt conspiracy beliefs and thoughts of violence. Five conspiracy beliefs are considered: Government Malfeasance, Malevolent World Power, Extra-terrestrial Cover-up, Personal Well-being Threat, and Control of Information. Using a survey of 977 US citizens, the book compares thirteen possible demographic characteristics (who?) to see which ones are most associated with extreme beliefs. The book then evaluates a three-step psychological sequence (why?) in which individuals experiencing intense life stressors (health, money, or loneliness), combined with powerlessness (displayed as PTSD symptoms), have increased risk for extreme beliefs, perhaps because they offer a sense of understanding, strength, and community.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Everyone has a role model, someone who pointed the way at a critical moment in their lives. These children were my role models. They obviously knew something I didn't and I was determined to figure it out. #2 The debate over whether intelligence is fixed or not has been going on for centuries. Today, most experts agree that it's not fixed, and that people can change and improve their intelligence through experience, training, and personal effort. #3 The fixed mindset is the belief that your qualities are fixed, and you can only be as smart as your intelligence allows you to be. The growth mindset is the belief that your qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts and strategies. #4 The belief that you can develop great qualities in yourself creates a passion for learning. Why waste time proving how great you are when you could be getting better. Why hide your weaknesses instead of overcoming them.

The 2022 Porchlight Marketing and Sales Book of the YearA brain-bending investigation of why some people never change their minds—and others do in an instant—by the bestselling author of You Are Not So SmartWhat made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, HOW MINDS CHANGE is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation.When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone's mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther's conversion blew up his theories—inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing. Told with McRaney's trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it's an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists, from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California—that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?An expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative, HOW MINDS CHANGE reaches surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, to demonstrate the rare but transformative circumstances under which minds can change.

Die vorliegende Arbeit möchte zeigen, wie Karl Barth in seiner Auseinandersetzung mit dem Religionsbegriff zu den Thesen ‚Religion als Unglaube‘ und ‚die christliche Religion als die einzig wirkliche und wahre Religion‘ in der Kirchlichen Dogmatik (KD) §17 – Gottes Offenbarung als Aufhebung der Religion –gelangt. Sie beschäftigt sich mit Barths Äußerungen zum Verhältnis von Religion und Wahrheit im Zeitraum von 1909 bis 1938 und richtet sich auf die konstruktive Rolle von ‚Religion‘ und damit auf die Frage, welche argumentative Rolle und Funktion Barth dem Religionsbegriff zuweist. Darüber hinaus könnte die konstruktive Rolle von ‚Religion‘ in Barths Theologie der zeitgenössischen Religionswissenschaft eine neue Perspektive eröffnen.

An intimate, philosophic quest for eternity, amidst the disenchantments and disappointments of our time“In this deceptively quiet and self-effacing book, Anthony Kronman makes an audacious argument: the most important things in our lives make sense only if we believe the world is divine. In a sense, we already believe it, if only we could find the words. Here they are.”—Jedediah Britton-Purdy, author of After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene Many people of faith believe the meaning of life depends on our connection to an eternal order of some kind. Atheists deride this belief as a childish superstition. In this wise and profound book, Anthony Kronman offers an alternative to these two entrenched positions, arguing that neither addresses the complexities of the human condition. We can never reach God, as religion promises, but cannot give up the longing to do so either. We are condemned by our nature to set goals we can neither abandon nor fulfill, yet paradoxically are able to approach more closely if we try. The human condition is one of inevitable disappointment tempered by moments of joy. Resolutely humanistic and theologically inspired, this moving book offers a rational path to the love of God amidst the disenchantments of our time.

It's time to ditch the self-limiting beliefs that hold you back from reaching your full potential! Do you ever feel like you're just not good enough, smart enough, or talented enough in certain areas? Do these beliefs keep you from seeking out new opportunities or challenges, because you're afraid of failing? If so, you may be suffering from a “fixed mindset.” In contrast, a “growth mindset” is the belief that you can increase your ability or develop your attributes—that you can adapt and learn from your mistakes. But how do you cultivate a growth mindset?The Growth Mindset Workbook offers essential skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to change the way you think about your own talents and abilities. Based on the core principles outlined in Mindset by Carol Dweck, this workbook will help you shed unhelpful and self-limiting attitudes and beliefs, and replace them with a growth mindset that can increase resiliency, boost self-confidence, and form the foundation of a meaningful, values-based life.The most important thing to remember is that a growth mindset can be learned, and doing so can positively impact how you think, feel and act. If you're ready to say yes to life's challenges and maximize your potential, this step-by-step guide can show you the way.

Why do we believe in the views of a political party or leader? How can we better understand vaccine hesitancy or denial of climate change science? What drives extremist or conspiracist beliefs?This vital and timely new text provides a compelling survey of the science behind how people form beliefs and evaluate those of others, and why it is that beliefs are often so resistant to change in the face of conflicting evidence.Bringing together theories and empirical evidence from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, Nancy S. Kim presents an engaging overview of the field and its implications for a wide range of beliefs – from moral, political, religious, and superstitious beliefs to beliefs about ourselves and our own potential. The intriguing studies discussed demonstrate how many psychological factors contribute to belief, including memory, reasoning, judgment, emotion, personality, social cognition, and cognitive development.With thoughtful questions and a range of cross-cultural case studies, this is an ideal overview for students of psychology and all readers interested in the psychology of belief.

Developing original accounts of the many aspects of belief, On Believing puts the believer at the heart of the story. Hunter argues that to believe something is to be in position to do, think, and feel things in light of a possibility whose obtaining would make one right. The logical aspect is that being right depends only on whether that possibility obtains. The psychological one concerns how that possibility can rationalise what one does, thinks, and feels. But, Hunter argues, beliefs are not causes, capacities, or dispositions. Rather, believing rationalises because possibilities are potential reasons. Hunter also denies that believing is a form of representing. The objects of belief are possibilities, not representations, and belief states are not themselves true or false. Hunter defends this modal view against familiar objections and explores how objective and subjective limits to belief generate credal illusions and ground credal necessities. Developing a novel account of the normativity of belief, he argues that voluntary acts of inference make us responsible for our beliefs. While denying that believing is intrinsically normative, Hunter grounds the ethics of belief in attributive goodness. Believing something is to our credit when it shows us to be good in some way, and what we ought to believe depends on what we ought to know, and not on the evidence we have. The ethics of belief, Hunter argues, concern how a believer ought to be positioned in a world of possibilities.

In an increasingly polarised world, it sometimes feels impossible to talk to someone you disagree with, let alone change their mind. However, as David McRaney reveals, you could be just one conversation away from reshaping someone's world view – here's how. ‘In a time when too many minds seem closed, this is a masterful analysis of what it takes to open them.'ADAM GRANT, AUTHOR OF THINK AGAIN Self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney sets out to discover not just what it takes to influence others, but why we believe in the first place. Along the way he meets a former Westboro Baptist Church member who was de-radicalised on Twitter, goes deep canvassing to see how quickly people will surrender their character-defining views, finds a former 9/11 Truther who turned his back on it all, and reveals how, within a few years, half a country can go from opposing the ‘gay agenda'to happily attending same-sex weddings. Distilling the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, How Minds Change reveals how beliefs take hold, not over hundreds of years, but in less than a generation, in less than a decade, and sometimes in an instant. ••• ‘Optimistic, illuminating and even inspiring.'GUARDIAN ‘A tonic for those who might scratch their head at how others could be so nonsensical.'NEW SCIENTIST ‘How Minds Change brings us face to face with the radically weird science of how our thoughts, perceptions, and beliefs are actually formed, and how they can, for better or worse, be modified.'JORDAN ELLENBERG

Der vorliegenden Band beschreibt das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Glauben und Wissen, welches schon exemplarisch durch die beiden Philosophen Platon und Aristoteles zum Ausdruck kommt. Diesem Duo entspricht in einem interkulturellen und interreligiösen Kontext Platon (Christus) und Aristoteles (Buddha). Hierbei geht es um einen deduktiven Weg Platons und einen induktiven Weg Aristoteles. So wird hier die Frage gestellt: Wie kommt Philosophie zu Gott, wenn und falls sie es tut? Unsere grundsätzliche Vorgehensweise ist hier die phänomenologische, d.h. die Frage der Bedeutung geht der Frage nach der Existenz voraus. In diesem Zusammenhang meldet sich das dornige Problem der Theodizee zu Wort. Den beiden Modi Wissen und Glauben liegt ein Widerfahrnischarakter zugrunde. Denn säßen Buddha, Christus, Mohammed oder Platon, Nagarjuna oder Hegel zusammen und hielten jeweils einen Vortrag über ihre je eigene Weltanschauung, entstünden bei den Zuhörern verschiedene Reaktionen, die da lauten: Buddha sagt mir mehr zu als Christus oder Mohammed, oder Christus sagt mir mehr zu als Buddha oder Mohammed bzw. Mohammed sagt mir mehr zu als Buddha oder Christus. In Bezug auf die Philosophen gilt etwas Vergleichbares. Es gibt diesbezüglich keine rein deduktiv argumentierende Logik, die diese Ansichten allgemeingültig begründen könnte. So werden hier die zwei religiosphilosophischen Wege kritisch dargestellt: Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der Erfahrung (David Hume) und Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft (Immanuel Kant). Die Rede von der Macht der ‚besseren Argumente'erfährt hier eine andere Begründungslogik. Denn Andersargumentieren ist Andersargumentieren, vorausgesetzt, man übt die philosophische Tugend der Verzichtsleistung auf jedwedem Absolutheitsanspruch, ob theologisch, philosophisch, politisch u.s.w.. Zum Verhältnis von Wissen und Glauben gibt es neben den vier Positionen (Quatralema) 1.Wissen und Glauben, 2.Wissen oder Glauben, 3.sowohl Wissen als auch Glauben 4.weder Wissen noch Glauben noch eine 5.Position (Pentalema), nämlich Wissen angesichts des Glaubens bzw. Glauben angesichts des Wissens. Über die Autoren: Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ram Adhar Mall, ein indisch-deutscher Philosoph, studierte Philosophie, Psychologie, Sanskrit und Anglistik an den Universitäten Kolkata, Göttingen und Köln. Die Schwerpunkte seiner Veröffentlichungen sind die interkulturelle Philosophie, der britische Empirismus, die Phänomenologie, die Philosophie des Hinduismus und Buddhismus sowie die vergleichende Religionsphilosophie. Promotion an der Universität Köln 1963 über das Thema ‘Humes Bild vom Menschen‘ und Habilitation 1981 an der Universität Trier zum Thema: ‘Der operative Begriff des Geistes. Locke-Berkeley-Hume‘. Er ist Gründungspräsident der Gesellschaft für interkulturelle Philosophie. Er lehrte er an den Universitäten Trier, Wuppertal, Bremen, München, Heidelberg und Jena und außerdem hatte er Gastprofessuren in Wien und Mumbai inne. Die Verleihung der Ehrendoktorwürde erfolgte an der Universität Hildesheim im Jahre 2014, in Anerkennung seiner ausgezeichneten Verdienste auf dem Gebiet der interkulturellen Philosophie und seiner Bemühungen um einen menschlichen und nicht rassistischen Umgang mit Pluralität in unserer Gesellschaft‘. Prof. Dr. Hermann-Josef Scheidgen studierte von 1976 bis 1982 Katholische Theologie, Philosophie, Geschichte und Pädagogik an den Universitäten Bonn und Köln. In allen vier Fächern legte er 1982-1983 das Erste Staatsexamen mit Erweiterungsprüfungen ab. 1991 wurde er an der Universität Bonn zum Dr. theol. promoviert. 2002 erfolgte ebenda die Habilitation für mittlere und neuere Kirchengeschichte. Im Jahre 2017 wurde er zum Honorarprofessor für neuere und neueste Geschichte an der Lorand Eötvös Universität, Budapest, berufen. Er hält auch dort Vorlesungen und Seminare. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind neben der Interkulturellen Philosophie und Religionswissenschaft die (Kirchen) Geschich

Do you believe in God? So many people answer this question in the negative because the God they have been taught to believe in is simply not all that believable. In the twenty-first century, a Deity who intervenes in history, supernaturally responds to prayers, favors and protects his faithful and chosen, and executes righteous judgment engenders doubt and disbelief in thinking people of all faiths, as well as those of no practicing faith. A God We Can Believe In is a response to this moment. Herein you will find contributions from leading rabbis and scholars that articulate paths to heart, mind, and soul with God-teachings that are spiritually compelling and intellectually sound. Our authors present God in ways that are consistent with the facts that higher learning has established, the principles of reason, and our shared life experiences. In these pages you will find a God that cannot be brushed aside by educated moderns; a God that does not violate the realities of logic or natural law; a God presented in accessible language; a God that can be lived with and lived for. It is a book for thoughtful individuals everywhere.

A groundbreaking reinterpretation that draws on cognitive theory to show that belief wasn't absent from—but rather was at the heart of—Roman religionBelief and Cult argues that belief isn't uniquely Christian but was central to ancient Roman religion. Drawing on cognitive theory, Jacob Mackey shows that despite having nothing to do with salvation or faith, belief underlay every aspect of Roman religious practices—emotions, individual and collective cult action, ritual norms, social reality, and social power. In doing so, he also offers a thorough argument for the importance of belief to other non-Christian religions.At the individual level, the book argues, belief played an indispensable role in the genesis of cult action and religious emotion. However, belief also had a collective dimension. The cognitive theory of Shared Intentionality shows how beliefs may be shared among individuals, accounting for the existence of written, unwritten, or even unspoken ritual norms. Shared beliefs permitted the choreography of collective cult action and gave cult acts their social meanings. The book also elucidates the role of shared belief in creating and maintaining Roman social reality. Shared belief allowed the Romans to endow agents, actions, and artifacts with socio-religious status and power. In a deep sense, no man could count as an augur and no act of animal slaughter as a successful offering to the gods, unless Romans collectively shared appropriate beliefs about these things.Closely examining augury, prayer, the religious enculturation of children, and the Romans'own theories of cognition and cult, Belief and Cult promises to revolutionize the understanding of Roman religion by demonstrating that none of its features makes sense without Roman belief.

A number of well-developed theories shed light on the question, under what circumstances our beliefs enjoy epistemic justification. Yet, comparatively little is known about epistemic defeat—when new information causes the loss of epistemic justification. This book proposes and defends a detailed account of epistemic defeaters. The main kinds of defeaters are analyzed in detail and integrated into a general framework that aims to explain how beliefs lose justification. It is argued that defeaters introduce incompatibilities into a noetic system and thereby prompt a structured re-evaluation process that makes a justified reinstatement of the defeated belief impossible. The account is then applied to the topic of disagreement, where it is used in an argument for conciliationism, as well as a new explanation for higher-order defeat. Throughout the book, the notion of defeat is the center of attention, while a number of new issues are discussed at the intersections of defeat and justification. Specifically, new problems are raised for broadly internalist accounts of defeat, a fully descriptive reliabilist account of defeat is provided, and the case for normative defeat is revisited.

Get the Summary of Carol S. Dweck's Mindset in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

'Nathan Aaseng asks the “God questions” about which many of us wonder but rarely have the honesty to explore. Weaving together story, life experience, science, humor, and hope, Aaseng stitches together a quilt of Christianity that faithfully lifts up the God of grace and pointedly rejects the easy answers of popular religion. With the heart of a pastor, the wit of a humorist, the eloquence of a bard, the clarity of a scientist, and the depth of a theologian, the reader is led onto holy ground to see the God of mercy, justice, and love. Laypersons will be enlightened. Clergy will delight in the way Aaseng addresses the ponderings of their flocks with the solid grounding of Scripture.'Duane Pederson, former Lutheran bishop and Visiting Professor at Yale Divinity SchoolMany Christian leaders today promote rigid doctrine that says, “Never doubt. Never question”. This insistence has been demonstrably disastrous for the church because the first step in any faith formation is to wonder. Nathan Aaseng revives the gift of wonder in seeking a fuller, more awesome experience of God. It welcomes unsettling questions, that are too often dismissed with pat answers.

La subjectivité moderne commence avec Descartes. La modernité n'est pourtant pas restée fidèle à la lettre de l'idéalisme cartésien. Chacun en hérite pour le modifier (Malebranche, Spinoza, etc.) ou le critiquer (Locke, Kant, etc.). C'est qu'en effet quelque chose ne fonctionne pas dans les Méditations de Descartes. Ce n'est pas le cogito. Le cogito est vrai, on n'avait d'ailleurs pas attendu Descartes pour s'en rendre compte : saint Augustin et Avicenne l'avaient vu avant lui. Ce qui ne fonctionne pas, c'est le doute hyperbolique. Cet essai montre que tous les lecteurs attentifs de Descartes, depuis le XVIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, ont vu le défaut du doute. Le problème, c'est qu'ils ont, à peu près tous, fait comme si cela n'avait pas d'importance. Compte tenu des conséquences du doute pour la constitution de l'idéalisme subjectif moderne, ce défaut de la méthode devait être mis en évidence.