What Beliefs Are Made From

Author : Jonathan Leicester
Publisher : Bentham Science Publishers
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2016-08-10
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781681082639

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What Beliefs Are Made From by Jonathan Leicester Pdf

What Beliefs Are Made From explores the nature and purpose of belief. The book describes several strange beliefs that have been shared by many members of whole communities. The intellectualistic, dispositional, feeling and eliminativist theories of belief are then examined critically. This is followed by a review of factors that can influence people in their beliefs. These include faulty use of evidence, unconscious reasoning biases, inability to withhold judgement, wishful thinking, prior beliefs, shared beliefs, personal experience, testimony, judgements about the source of testimony, personality, in-group psychology, emotions and feelings, language, symbolism, non-verbal communication, repetition, propaganda, mysticism, rumour, conspiracy theories, and illness. The book also covers beliefs of children and belief during dreaming. The regulation of inquiry by belief and disbelief is described. What Beliefs Are Made From is a useful reference for general readers interested in the philosophy of the mind, and the psychology of belief.

Author : Jamie Cawley
Publisher : Troubador Publishing Ltd
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2018-12-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781784628987

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Beliefs by Jamie Cawley Pdf

An accessible, objective understanding of what the major ‘beliefs’ are about. The major beliefs include: Polytheism, Judaism, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Nationalism, Communism and Environmentalism. All have over 100 million followers and the full structure of faith-determined behavioural guidance.

Author : Guy P. Harrison
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2012-01-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781616144968

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50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True by Guy P. Harrison Pdf

“What would it take to create a world in which fantasy is not confused for fact and public policy is based on objective reality?" asks Neil deGrasse Tyson, science popularizer and author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. "I don't know for sure. But a good place to start would be for everyone on earth to read this book." Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you're trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. Or you met someone at a party who insisted the Holocaust never happened or that no one ever walked on the moon. How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? This down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims will help you set the record straight. The author, a veteran journalist, has not only surveyed a vast body of literature, but has also interviewed leading scientists, explored "the most haunted house in America," frolicked in the inviting waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and even talked to a "contrite Roswell alien." He is not out simply to debunk unfounded beliefs. Wherever possible, he presents alternative scientific explanations, which in most cases are even more fascinating than the wildest speculation. For example, stories about UFOs and alien abductions lack good evidence, but science gives us plenty of reasons to keep exploring outer space for evidence that life exists elsewhere in the vast universe. The proof for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster may be nonexistent, but scientists are regularly discovering new species, some of which are truly stranger than fiction. Stressing the excitement of scientific discovery and the legitimate mysteries and wonder inherent in reality, this book invites readers to share the joys of rational thinking and the skeptical approach to evaluating our extraordinary world.

Author : James E. Alcock
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-03
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781633884045

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Belief by James E. Alcock Pdf

An expert on the psychology of belief examines how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believe it to be. This book explores the psychology of belief - how beliefs are formed, how they are influenced both by internal factors, such as perception, memory, reason, emotion, and prior beliefs, as well as external factors, such as experience, identification with a group, social pressure, and manipulation. It also reveals how vulnerable beliefs are to error, and how they can be held with great confidence even when factually false. The author, a social psychologist who specializes in the psychology of belief, elucidates how the brain and nervous system function to create the perceptions, memories, and emotions that shape belief. He explains how and why distorted perceptions, false memories, and inappropriate emotional reactions that sometimes lead us to embrace false beliefs are natural products of mental functioning. He also shows why it is so difficult to change our beliefs when they collide with contradictions. Covering a wide range -- from self-perception and the perceived validity of everyday experience to paranormal, religious, and even fatal beliefs--the book demonstrates how crucial beliefs are to molding our experience and why they have such a powerful hold on our behavior.

Author : Jonathan E. Adler
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2006-01-20
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0262261375

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Belief's Own Ethics by Jonathan E. Adler Pdf

The fundamental question of the ethics of belief is "What ought one to believe?" According to the traditional view of evidentialism, the strength of one's beliefs should be proportionate to the evidence. Conventional ways of defending and challenging evidentialism rely on the idea that what one ought to believe is a matter of what it is rational, prudent, ethical, or personally fulfilling to believe. Common to all these approaches is that they look outside of belief itself to determine what one ought to believe. In this book Jonathan Adler offers a strengthened version of evidentialism, arguing that the ethics of belief should be rooted in the concept of belief—that evidentialism is belief's own ethics. A key observation is that it is not merely that one ought not, but that one cannot, believe, for example, that the number of stars is even. The "cannot" represents a conceptual barrier, not just an inability. Therefore belief in defiance of one's evidence (or evidentialism) is impossible. Adler addresses such questions as irrational beliefs, reasonableness, control over beliefs, and whether justifying beliefs requires a foundation. Although he treats the ethics of belief as a central topic in epistemology, his ideas also bear on rationality, argument and pragmatics, philosophy of religion, ethics, and social cognitive psychology.

Author : Daniel Gabarró,Nieves Machín
Publisher : Babelcube Inc.
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2019-04-24
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781547585625

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21 Beliefs That Make Us Miserable ...and how to overcome them to live happier lives by Daniel Gabarró,Nieves Machín Pdf

Many social beliefs cause us to suffer because they’re false. That’s why we need wisdom to help us leave them behind in order to live happier lives. You’ll find this information here. This book has been written in a direct and clear way which gets right to the point. It has so much useful information explained in a clear way that you’ll want to read it again and again, and, with each additional reading, you’ll deepen your understanding. It will soon be the book on your bedside table. You don’t have to believe anything, just verify the information it contains and you’ll see how your life becomes filled with peace and harmony. Furthermore, the book also includes practical exercises to integrate its contents into daily life. We’re not looking to fill your mind with theory, but rather to transform your life in a real and practical way. We hope this book represents a turning point in your life.

Author : Ralph Lewis, MD
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 446 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2018-07-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781633883864

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Finding Purpose in a Godless World by Ralph Lewis, MD Pdf

A psychiatrist presents a compelling argument for how human purpose and caring emerged in a spontaneous and unguided universe. Can there be purpose without God? This book is about how human purpose and caring, like consciousness and absolutely everything else in existence, could plausibly have emerged and evolved unguided, bottom-up, in a spontaneous universe. A random world--which according to all the scientific evidence and despite our intuitions is the actual world we live in--is too often misconstrued as nihilistic, demotivating, or devoid of morality and meaning. Drawing on years of wide-ranging, intensive clinical experience as a psychiatrist, and his own family experience with cancer, Dr. Lewis helps readers understand how people cope with random adversity without relying on supernatural belief. In fact, as he explains, although coming to terms with randomness is often frightening, it can be liberating and empowering too. Written for those who desire a scientifically sound yet humanistic view of the world, Lewis's book examines science's inroads into the big questions that occupy religion and philosophy. He shows how our sense of purpose and meaning is entangled with mistaken intuitions that events in our lives happen for some intended cosmic reason and that the universe itself has inherent purpose. Dispelling this illusion, and integrating the findings of numerous scientific fields, he shows how not only the universe, life, and consciousness but also purpose, morality, and meaning could, in fact, have emerged and evolved spontaneously and unguided. There is persuasive evidence that these qualities evolved naturally and without mystery, biologically and culturally, in humans as conscious, goal-directed social animals. While acknowledging the social and psychological value of progressive forms of religion, the author respectfully critiques even the most sophisticated theistic arguments for a purposeful universe. Instead, he offers an evidence-based, realistic yet optimistic and empathetic perspective. This book will help people to see the scientific worldview of an unguided, spontaneous universe as awe-inspiring and foundational to building a more compassionate society.

Author : E. Brian Davies
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2010-07-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191591563

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Why Beliefs Matter by E. Brian Davies Pdf

In the follow-up to his acclaimed Science in the Looking Glass, Brian Davies discusses deep problems about our place in the world, using a minimum of technical jargon. The book argues that 'absolutist' ideas of the objectivity of science, dating back to Plato, continue to mislead generations of both theoretical physicists and theologians. It explains that the multi-layered nature of our present descriptions of the world is unavoidable, not because of anything about the world, but because of our own human natures. It tries to rescue mathematics from the singular and exceptional status that it has been assigned, as much by those who understand it as by those who do not. Working throughout from direct quotations from many of the important contributors to its subject, it concludes with a penetrating criticism of many of the recent contributions to the often acrimonious debates about science and religions.

Author : Michael Shermer
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2011-05-24
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781429972611

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The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer Pdf

The Believing Brain is bestselling author Michael Shermer's comprehensive and provocative theory on how beliefs are born, formed, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished. In this work synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist, historian of science, and the world's best-known skeptic Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning. Our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen, and these patterns become beliefs. Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive-feedback loop of belief confirmation. Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths. Interlaced with his theory of belief, Shermer provides countless real-world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal. Ultimately, he demonstrates why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not a belief matches reality.

Author : Neil Van Leeuwen
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2023-11-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780674294929

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Religion as Make-Believe by Neil Van Leeuwen Pdf

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.

Author : David Eddings,Leigh Eddings
Publisher : Del Rey
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2007-12-18
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307417350

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The Rivan Codex by David Eddings,Leigh Eddings Pdf

Join David and Leigh Eddings on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the extensive background materials they compiled before beginning the masterpiece of epic fantasy unforgettably set down in The Belgariad and The Malloreon and their two companion volumes, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. Our tour stretches from the wealthy Empire of Tolnedra to the remote Isle of the Winds, from the mysterious mountains of Ulgoland to the forbidding reaches of darkest Mallorea. Along the way, you will meet old friends and enemies alike. Rare volumes will be opened to your eyes. Sacred holy books in which you may read the secrets of the Gods themselves and of their prophets. Scholarly histories of the rise and fall of empires from the Imperial Library at Tol Honeth. The profound mysteries of the Malloreon Gospels. THE RIVAN CODEX will enrich your understanding of all that has gone before . . . and whet your appetite for more spectacular adventures from this talented team.

Author : Carol Tavris
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 506 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Cognitive dissonance
ISBN : 1780660383

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Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) by Carol Tavris Pdf

Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why the parade of public figures unable to own up when they make mistakes? Why the endless marital quarrels over who is right? Why can we see hypocrisy in others but not in ourselves? Are we all liars? Or do we really believe the stories we tell? Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibil.

Author : Christopher Hitchens
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2008-11-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781551991764

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God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens Pdf

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

Author : Daniel Bar-Tal
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2000-07-06
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781452221885

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Shared Beliefs in a Society by Daniel Bar-Tal Pdf

...carefully argued, this book will have special appeal to graduate students, faculty, social psychologists (notably those yearning for Lewinian Approaches), and group-oriented sociologists. —Choice What kind of shared beliefs in a society are of importance to social systems? What functions do they fulfill? How are they informed and disseminated? What are the societal consequences of shared beliefs? All of these questions are addressed in this book in which Daniel Bar-Tal develops the notion of societal psychology, which he states can contribute a social-psychological perspective to the study of a wide range of social problems in a society. He shows how societal psychology can fulfill the promise of early social psychologists by directing attention to the societal and cultural contexts in which individuals live and by examining the reciprocal influence between these contexts and individuals. In this comprehensive volume, four themes of societal belief: patriotism, security, siege mentality, and deligitimization, are examined through well-defined examples and systematic analysis. Researchers, students and practitioners in social psychology, sociology, political science and anthropology will be stimulated and engaged by this important contribution to the field.

Author : Guido Calabresi
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 1985-06-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 0815623100

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Ideals, Beliefs, Attitudes, and the Law by Guido Calabresi Pdf