One of the conditions of knowledge is that you believe it... so is it possible that one of the conditions of belief is to know it to be true?
2007-01-25 21:01:43 · 21 answers · asked by tituseast 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
There are two meanings to the word belief.
1. I have a set of directions to go from my house to another town. As I drive along I see that landmarks on the directions are actually there. This leads me to 'believe' that the directions are accurate. I have 'faith' that I will get where I'm going.
So, there are things which I don't actually know, but the evidence gives me faith that they are true.
For this meaning, I completely agree with you.
2. My life is so **** awful that I need something to make some sense of it and give me hope for the future. So I turn to whatever belief system might buoy me up and help me just to stay alive.
For this meaning, almost the opposite is true. I don't want to tread on anyone's toes here, but the more 'otherworldly', the more strange the belief system is, the better to lift me out of the horrors of my life.
So for this meaning I think it's the other way around.
Jon C
2007-01-25 21:23:22 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Is one of the conditions of knowledge that you believe it?
I know about dragons from reading about them. I don't believe they exist or that the knowledge is true. I accept that people have written about them and told stories and made up facts. But that's it.
Belief does not require knowledge of truth. In fact if you know something is true you don't need to have a belief in it.
This is the basis for faith in God. We cannot prove or deny the existance of a supreme being, so many have faith and believe He/She/They do.
2007-01-25 21:38:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Knowledge has been defined by mnay philosophers as:
Justifed true belief.
But if i see something black and white in a field and say "thats a cow in that field!" but it is really a plastic black and white bag, but nearby there IS a cow in the field, can it be said that i had justified reasons for believing that cow was in the field?
Most likely not!
So i would say you don't need to KNOW something entirely to believe it, but you should have a fair grasp of what it is you are believing.
2007-01-26 02:31:42 · answer #3 · answered by Robin T 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I feel that to believe something the knowledge should be from a reliable & authantic source, since many things can be belived to be true but may not be so when new details are known it is relative to each different situations, All the details may not be available in the begining things get clear as more details and experience are achived
2007-01-25 22:00:44 · answer #4 · answered by mr.kotiankar 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, it is a given fact.
I always believed there was some kind of inexplainable parallelism of coincidences of one person's life into my life. Whatever do they mean, i take it as coincidences. I was always emotionally driven towards him, we got reacquainted meaninglessly and set off our own normal lives but i believe we love each other. Now how can this be? I don't know, but my belief is strong. I tried to seek for the truth about it, i am still trying but it seems like pointless effort. it is my belief but it doesn't mean to say that he doesn't have a present life or circumstances to live with, and so do I.
I also believe in ghosts. I have seen couple of them so I don't have to seek out truth for it. I believe there is a third dimension that is not visible to our naked material eyes. I feel.
2007-01-25 21:34:43 · answer #5 · answered by oscar c 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think so, lets be honest, we could all believe something without 'knowing' it to be true in cases of incomplete evidence and whatnot.
But this all comes down to your definition of belief, as there are variation of belief from having an inkling all the way to being almost certain, certainly what you say comes into it in the latter end of that scale, although I don't think even in that case you can truly define it as knowing, as you are still making a leap of faith, no matter how tiny.
2007-01-25 21:13:12 · answer #6 · answered by Caffeine Fiend 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think so, there are millions of people who believe in religions, the afterlife, aliens, conspiracy theories etc. Most of these beliefs have not been proven or disproven, but people still believe in them.
But then I suppose that begs the question "Whats the difference between faith and belief?"
Hmmmm...tricky question. Good on you for asking it!
2007-01-25 21:09:40 · answer #7 · answered by lululaluau 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Absolutely! As Carl Jung said when asked if he believed in God. "I do not believe, I know." Knowledge precedes belief. Without knowledge belief is mere heresy.
2007-01-25 21:16:45 · answer #8 · answered by los 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
To believe in something is to know that it exists in some manner or form, whether it's in the mind or as a physical matter. But you do not have to believe it is what others see it as. For example, like colour, some see something as light blue, others may see it as green or turquoise. If it was God your were talking about, some believe he is there as a form within ourselves and look up to the skies and imagine him there, but as a scientist, I do not believe he exists but know he is form worshipped by others but I can't imagine him in anyway as I don't believe he's there. I just know of him.
If you know what I mean.lol.
2007-01-25 21:18:15 · answer #9 · answered by ~Kitana~ 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
When you think you know, you obviously believe it or more accurately, you obviously can not disbelieve it. But even if you think you do not know for sure, you can still believe it to be true.
Knowing is a fact whereas believing is an act.
2007-01-25 21:32:53 · answer #10 · answered by small 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋