Are All Beliefs Involuntary?: Philosophy Forums

Are All Beliefs Involuntary?
Or can we (in at least some cases) choose what we believe?

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Are All Beliefs Involuntary?

aletheist
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Posted 07/02/09 - 05:44 AM:	#31
mway wrote: If all beliefs are involuntary then you can't seek justification, and you can't weigh evidence. If you cannot seek justification, and you cannot weigh evidence, then you cannot be rational. Therefore, if all beliefs are involuntary, then you cannot be rational. Right? If you "seek" justification and "weigh" evidence, then you are clearly doing something voluntary. If the will plays no role whatsoever in what I believe, then there can be no moral imperative for me to seek justification or weigh evidence; i.e., to be rational. Reason is an illusion if all beliefs are involuntary.
"Be attentive, Be intelligent, Be reasonable, Be responsible." - Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984)

Incision
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Posted 07/02/09 - 11:43 AM:	#32
Unlike single beliefs, Helm argues, belief-policies are directly subject to the will[. . .]. Helm may be saying that belief-policies are complex beliefs; my belief-policy is that correlation does not imply causation, that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data," etc. If so, his position is vulnerable to my arguments. Or he may be saying that belief-policies are habits or dispositions (higher-order dispositions, I suppose, since some beliefs are dispositions). If that's so, then I'm not sure. Say I have a habit, disposition and addiction to smoking; if I choose on each future occasion not to smoke, I probably didn't directly remove the addiction, probably did directly remove the habit, and I'm not sure about the disposition. Since belief is subject to "standards," to evaluation, there is something like an "ethics of belief." But not all standards are ethical. There's a height standard for using the McDonald's playground, but that adults are evil is known on different grounds.

Incision
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Posted 07/02/09 - 12:13 PM:	#33
aletheist wrote: If you "seek" justification and "weigh" evidence, then you are clearly doing something voluntary. I think you can be determined to seek justification. But aside from that, let me use this analogy. Suppose John asks if he can choose to have people fall in love with him. If we're forced to answer "yes" or "no," the best answer for my money would be "no." John probably wants to know if he can wiggle his nose and automatically win devotion -- if he can directly choose, which is impossible. But it would be more perspicuous to draw out the direct/indirect distinction. Likewise, if someone asks if they can choose their beliefs, I assume there's a nose-wiggling assumption. But if you're just saying that, minimally, people can choose to Google it and Googling it affects their beliefs, then I'd certainly agree.

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