The Will to Believe
People have long been interested in the circumstances under which it is appropriate to believe. Often, the source of this interest is the desire to believe something for which one has insufficient evidence.
A hypothesis is a proposition, or idea, thats presented to us as a possible belief. A live hypothesis is a proposition w/c it is, in fact, possible for us to believe, whereas a dead hypothesis is a proposition which it’s impossible for us to believe. An option is a decision between two hypotheses. A live option is a decision between two live hypotheses; a dead option is a decision btween two options at least one of which is dead. A forced option is a decision between two options which we can’t avoid making; an avoidable option is a decision between two options which we can avoid making. A momentous option is an irrevocable option for significant stakes; a trivial option is an option which is not irrevocable or for significant stakes. And finally, and most importantly of all, a genuine option is an option which is simultaneously living, forced, and momentous. But theres a problem from believing we are being subjecting to our beliefs. Its the non-intellectual we cant use our human reason to say that it is a true one. given that our beliefs are partially determined by factors other than reason, it remains to be asked whether this should be the case. Given that our will does plays a role in determining our belief, should we embrace this as a fact of psychological life, or should we struggle against it? we have two duties: 1. the duty to believe the truth, 2. the duty to not believe the false. These duties sometimes conflict. In order to believe the truth, we must have beliefs and so we risk having false beliefs. In order to avoid having false beliefs, we may avoid believing things and so we may risk losing true beliefs. blieving falsehoods is worse than failing to believe truths and so he recommends believing only things which are well-justified. Someone else might think that failing to believe truths is worse than believing falsehoods and so would recommend believing things which aren’t so well-justified. this decision is, itself, a “passional” one, motivated by non-rational factors. Because some beliefs, like the belief that avoiding falsehood is more important than attaining truth, cannot be adopted on the basis of logic alone, and because such beliefs are central to the entire enterprise of believing anything at all, it must be okay, sometimes, to believe things for non-rational reasons.
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