Belief System - Overview

Overview

The British philosopher Stephen Law has described some belief systems (including belief in homeopathy, psychic powers and alien abduction) as "claptrap" and said that they "draw people in and hold them captive so they become willing slaves ... if you get sucked in, it can be extremely difficult to think your way clear again".

Jonathan Glover believes that he and other philosophers ought to play some role in starting dialogues between people with deeply held, opposing belief, especially if there is risk of violence. Glover also believes that philosophy can offer insights about beliefs that would be relevant to such dialogue.

Glover suggests that beliefs have to be considered holistically, and that no belief exists in isolation in the mind of the believer. They always implicate and relate to other beliefs.Glover provides the example of a patient with an illness who returns to a doctor, but the doctor says that the prescribed medicine is not working. At that point, the patient has a great deal of flexibility in choosing what beliefs to keep or reject; the patient could believe that the doctor is incompetent, that the doctor's assistants made a mistake, that the patient's own body is unique in some unexpected way, that western medicine is ineffective, or even that western science is entirely unable to discover truths about ailments.

Glover maintains that any person can continue to hold any belief if they would really like to (e.g. with help from ad hoc hypotheses). One belief can be held fixed, and other beliefs will be altered around it. Glover warns that some beliefs may not be entirely explicitly believed (e.g. some people may not realize they have racist beliefs systems adopted from their environment as a child). Glover believes that people tend to first realize that beliefs can change, and may be contingent on our upbringing, around age 12 or 15.

Glover emphasizes that beliefs are difficult to change. He says that we may try to rebuild our beliefs on more secure foundations, axioms, like building a new house, but warns that this may not be possible. Glover offers the example of René Descartes, saying about Descartes that "He starts off with the characteristic beliefs of a 17th century frenchman, he then junks the lot, he rebuilds the system, and somehow it looks a lot like the beliefs of 17th century frenchman." To Glover, belief systems are not like houses but are instead like boats. As Glover puts it: "Maybe the whole thing needs re-building, but inevitably at any point you have to keep enough of it intact to keep floating."

Glover's final message is that, if people talk about their beliefs, they may find more deep, relevant, philosophical ways in which they disagree (e.g. less obvious beliefs, or more deeply held beliefs). Glover thinks that people often manage to find agreements and consensus through philosophy. He says that at very least, if people do not convert each other, they will hold their own beliefs more open mindedly and will be less likely to go to war over conflicting beliefs.