THEISTIC BELIEF: REFLEXIVITY AND ADHERENCE

• Autor(a) principal: De Luca-Noronha, Daniel
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Sant'Anna, José Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Interações (Uberlândia. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/interacoes/article/view/17174
• topic: Theistic belief; Perceptual experience; Grounded cognition; Crença teísta; Experiência perceptiva; Cognição ancorada

The aim of this paper is to state a conception of theistic belief that takes into account two important aspects: reflectiveness and adherence. The first aspect involves the idea that theistic belief stems from reflection about a specific kind of experience. The second aspect consists in the evocative and transformative character of theistic belief. However, according to some lines of thought, if theistic belief had a reflective character, it would not have the kind of adherence that is its own. This argument leads to conceiving of theistic belief as a basic belief, i.e., as a propositional attitude that constitutes experience. In spite of this, we argue that there is at least one circumstance of theistic belief formation in which the relevant experience has to be conceived as belief-independent. This circumstance is the perceptual experience of vastness. With respect to this kind of experience, the theistic belief must be conceived as reflective belief. It remains for us to show how theistic beliefs can be adherent. Assuming the approach of grounded cognition, we argue that the reflective aspect of theistic belief does not cancel its adherent character.