Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T20:52:31.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Belief and religious ‘belief’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2019

ARIF AHMED*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB3 9DA, UK
*

Abstract

Is the analysis of religion best conducted in terms of the beliefs of its practitioners? I describe a Wittgenstein-inspired approach to belief on which it is dubious that religious practices satisfy the criteria for the attribution of belief. I defend this more moderate and plausible version of Needham's thesis against two natural reasons to think religious belief widespread.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, A. M. (2014) Evidence, Decision and Causality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binmore, K. (2009) Rational Decisions (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Bishop, J. (2007) Believing by Faith: An Essay in the Epistemology and Ethics of Religious Belief (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, J. (1974) ‘Criteria and rules of language’, Philosophical Review, 87, 7087.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cottingham, J. (2017) ‘Wittgenstein and philosophy of religion’, in Glock, H.-J. & Hyman, J. (eds) A Companion to Wittgenstein (Malden MA: Wiley), 639650.Google Scholar
Crane, T. (2017) The Meaning of Belief (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dummett, M. A. E. (1991) ‘Frege and Wittgenstein’, in his Frege and Other Philosophers (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 237248.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (1980) The Varieties of Reference (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1990) A Theory of Content and Other Essays (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Gallie, W. B. (1956) ‘Essentially contested concepts’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 56, 167198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, G. (2014) Wittgenstein and Natural Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, S. A. (1982) Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. (1989) Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
McDowell, J. (1982) ‘Criteria, defeasibility and knowledge’, Proceedings of the British Academy 68, 455–79. Reprinted in his Meaning, Knowledge and Reality (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press), 369394.Google Scholar
Magee, B. (1987) The Great Philosophers: An Introduction to Western Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Mounce, H. O. (1981) Wittgenstein's Tractatus: An Introduction (Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Needham, R. (1972) Belief, Language, and Experience (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. (1960) Word and Object (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Ramsey, F. P. (1993) Review of Tractatus, in Copi, I. M. & Beard, R. W. (eds) Essays on Wittgenstein's Tractatus (Bristol: Thoemmes Press), 924.Google Scholar
Somé, M. P. (1999) The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual and Community (New York: Penguin).Google Scholar
Smith, W. C. (1979) Faith and Belief (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Vasiliou, I. (2001) ‘Wittgenstein, religious belief, and On Certainty’, in Arrington, R. L. & Addis, M. (eds) Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (London: Routledge), 2950.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1960) The Blue and Brown Books: Preliminary Studies for the ‘Philosophical Investigations’, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1961) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Pears, D. & McGuinness, B. F. (trs) (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1980) Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology I, G. E. M. Anscombe (tr.) (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1993) ‘Remarks on Fraser's Golden Bough’, Rhees, R. (tr.), in Klagge, J. C. & Nordmann, A. (eds) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Occasions 1912–51 (Indianapolis IN: Hackett), 115–55.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (2009) Philosophical Investigations, Anscombe, G. E. M., Hacker, P. M. S., & Schulte, J. (trs), 4th edn (Malden MA: Wiley).Google Scholar
Wright, C. J. G. (1975) ‘On the coherence of vague predicates’, Synthese, 30, 325365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar