102 résultats pour "belief"

• Belief

  thought of as a relation to a proposition. A proposition is what is expressed by a sentence; it is what is in common between sentences in French and English that mean the same; the proposition expressed is what is grasped when you understand a sentence. Monolingual speakers believe alike by believing the same propositions; dogs have beliefs by virtue of believing propositions despite not having a language to express them; someone who believes that the sentence 'The Devil exists' is true whil...

• Belief and knowledge

  know that it is the case. There are two advantages to this. First, when we accept that something is the case, we do so for a purpose, and the relevant purpose for epistemic agents is the pursuit of truth. When we believe (or harbour a conviction) we need not have any such purpose. So the use of 'acceptance' rather than 'conviction' helps us keep in sight the goal-oriented nature of epistemic agents. Second, a belief (and conviction) can be the product of entirely irrational factors, such as...

• Roman Mythology I INTRODUCTION Roman Mythology, the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Rome.

  Aeneas and AnchisesAccording to mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan prince. After Troy fell to the Greeks during the Trojan War, Aeneas traveledto Italy and met and married a woman in the kingdom that occupied the region that would one day become Rome.Through this marriage, Aeneas was the direct ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. In thispainting he is carrying his father, Anchises, on his back while fleeing from Troy. This painting by Lionello Spada is in theLouvre Museum...

• Scandinavian Mythology I INTRODUCTION Scandinavian Mythology, pre-Christian religious beliefs of the Scandinavian people.

  Werner Forman/Corbis Many ancient mythological heroes, some of whom may have been derived from real persons, were believed to be descendants of the gods; among them were Sigurdthe Dragon-slayer; Helgi Thrice-Born, Harald Wartooth, Hadding, Starkad, and the Valkyries. The Valkyries, a band of warrior-maidens that included Svava andBrunhild, served Odin as choosers of slain warriors, who were taken to reside in Valhalla. There the warriors would spend their days fighting and nights feasting untilR...

• Commonsensism

  2 Critical commonsensism: a systematic treatment ‘The slogans are impressive enough, ' one may say, ‘but how are they to be applied? ' In setting out, one presupposes that, by contemplating various possible beliefs, we can find out that some of them logically imply others, that some contradict others, that some are such that they serve to confirm others (they make the others probable) and that some are such as to disconfirm others (they make the others improbable). Probability, as Peirce con...

• Millennium.

  Postmillennialism, also referred to as progressive millennialism, interprets the Bible less literally than premillennialism does. Postmillennialists regard the millennium as a1,000-year reign of Christian ideals that will end with the return of Christ. In this view, the millennium will not start suddenly through an apocalypse, but graduallythrough the efforts of human beings. Postmillennialists believe that through social reform and by upholding Christian ideals, the kingdom of God will be built...

• God. I INTRODUCTION God, the center and focus of religious faith, a holy

  C Islam Islam arose as a powerful reaction against the ancient pagan cults of Arabia, and as a consequence it is the most starkly monotheistic of the three biblically rootedreligions. The name Allah means simply “the God.” He is personal, transcendent, and unique, and Muslims are forbidden to depict him in any creaturely form. The primary creed is that “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.” Allah has seven basic attributes: life, knowledge, power, will, hearing, se...

• Concepts

  suggested that concept possession need not consist in knowing a definition, but in appreciating the role of a concept in thought and practice. Moreover, he claimed, a concept need not apply to things by virtue of some closed set of features captured by a definition, but rather by virtue of ‘family resemblances' among the things, a suggestion that has given rise in psychology to ‘prototype' theories of concepts. Most traditional approaches to possession conditions have been concerned with t...

• Western Philosophy.

  the popular belief in personal deities, but he failed to explain the way in which the familiar objects of experience could develop out of elements that are totally differentfrom them. Anaxagoras therefore suggested that all things are composed of very small particles, or “seeds,” which exist in infinite variety. To explain the way in whichthese particles combine to form the objects that constitute the familiar world, Anaxagoras developed a theory of cosmic evolution. He maintained that the activ...

• Hinduism.

  they do not share any basic terms. B Sanātana Dharma Evidence from inscriptions indicates that Hindus had begun to use the word dharma for their religion by the 7th century. After other religions of Indian origin also began to use this term, Hindus then adopted the expression san ātana dharma to distinguish their dharma from others. The word san ātana, meaning immemorial as well as eternal, emphasized the unbroken continuity of the Hindu tradition in contrast to the other dharmas . The Bu...

• Religion.

  By the end of the 19th century, scholars were making religion an object of systematic inquiry. Müller’s comparative approach was adopted in many European andJapanese universities, and as a result the common features of world religions (such as gods, prayer, priesthood, and creation myths) were the subjects of sustainedscholarly investigation. In addition, field anthropologists had begun to compile firsthand accounts of the religions of peoples who previously had been dismissed assavages. The stu...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A priori ?

  automatically a notion involving special conditions for either the origin or one's understanding of the belief inquestion.The notion of a priori knowledge, construed as a notion of non-empirically grounded knowledge, is not the same as anotion of epistemic certainty. Philosophers have understood ‘epistemic certainty' in various ways: for instance, asepistemically indubitable belief or as self-evident belief. A belief is epistemically indubitable if and only if it would notbe epistemical...

• Culture.

  form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects, such as works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays. C1 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Self-identity usually depends on culture to such a great extent that immersion in a very different culture—with which a person does not share common ways of life orbeliefs—can cause a feeling of confusion and disorientation. Anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as culture shock. In multicultural societies —societies s...

• Principle of Charity

  In courses on critical thinking (or argument analysis or informal logic), students learn a method for interpreting and evaluating the arguments and assertions that they read and hear. The principle of charity often plays a central role in the methodology taught in such courses. The version of the principle advanced in this context is typically one of the weaker ones mentioned above, recommending that charitable interpretations be favoured, but acknowledging other considerations as well. Advocate...

• Shang Dynasty - History.

  The dynastic ancestors belonged to an elaborate religious pantheon that also included various nature powers and the Shang high god, Di. The higher powers were lessconcerned with the well-being of Shang society than the ancestors were. Di, whose wishes were often hard to determine, could even cause the Shang harm. The naturepowers could occasionally influence the wind, rain, and harvests, but only Di could actually order the weather. For an agricultural society such as the Shang, this wasperhaps...

• Roman Catholic Church.

  comprehensiveness of its doctrinal tradition. Locating its beginnings in the earliest Christian communities and refusing to acknowledge any decisive break in its history,the Roman Catholic Church considers itself heir to the theological traditions of the apostolic, patristic, medieval, and modern periods. The church does not in principleexclude any theological method, and since the encyclical of Pope Pius XII Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943) it has officially sanctioned modern principles of exeg...

• Protests in the 1960s - U.

  E Youth Culture Young people played an important role in the movements for social change during the 1960s. Numbers alone made them important; more than 76 million babies wereborn during the post-World War II “baby boom.” In addition, these young people spent more years in school and were more affluent than previous generations. In theearly 20th century, most young Americans had moved quickly from childhood to adulthood. In the 1920s only 1 in 5 Americans graduated from high school, and almostal...

• Analyse de l'article (1997) - Can we believe what we do not understand ? de François Recanati, philosophe du langage

  Table des matieres 1 La construction d'un systeme methodique 4 1.1 Mise en evidence des dierents types d'enonces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 La relation entre quasi-beliefetmeta-belief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 Aspect linguistique : critique de la semantique indeterminee chez Sperber 7 2.1 Le caractere representationnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.2 Le deferential operator R x() comme alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 La vision anti-dualiste ent...

• Roman Mythology.

  Her temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome was a center for organizations of skilled craftspeople. According to tradition, in 509 BC the dynasty of Etruscan kings ended and the Roman Republic was founded. The republic was ruled by two chief magistrates, called consuls, who were elected by the people to one-year terms. During the time of the republic, the Capitoline temple became the most important public shrine of theRoman people and the focus of public worship. Each January, the new consuls offer...

• Native American Literature.

  Many Native American writers of the 19th century wrote histories of their tribes. One tribal historian was David Cusick (Tuscarora), whose Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1827) was the first published tribal history. Tribal histories explained the deep ties that tribes had to their ancestral homelands. Beginning in the 18th century, these ties took on special meaning because the United States government began removing Native Americans from their traditional lands. These removal...

• Asian Theater I INTRODUCTION Asian Theater, live performance, featuring actors or puppets, native to Asia, a continent with more than 2 billion people of many nations and cultures.

  III THEATER IN EAST ASIA Theater in East Asia includes the traditions of China, Japan, and Korea. Most Chinese theater is urban, secular (nonreligious) entertainment, influenced by the ethics of Confucianism. However, a belief in spirits influences rituals performed by ethnic minorities in China, and Buddhism dominates traditional Tibetan performance. Japanesedramatic forms combine native shamanistic performance, secular entertainment, and cultural or religious influences from China and Kore...

• Colonialism and Colonies.

  by plundering the riches of existing civilizations in the Americas and by seizing the area’s mineral wealth through mining. These practices were promoted by the policy of mercantilism that many European colonial powers adopted. Those who advocated mercantilism believed that exports toforeign countries were preferable both to trade within a country and to imports because exports brought more money into the country. They also believed that thewealth of a nation depended primarily on the possession...

• Colonialism and Colonies .

  by plundering the riches of existing civilizations in the Americas and by seizing the area’s mineral wealth through mining. These practices were promoted by the policy of mercantilism that many European colonial powers adopted. Those who advocated mercantilism believed that exports toforeign countries were preferable both to trade within a country and to imports because exports brought more money into the country. They also believed that thewealth of a nation depended primarily on the possession...

• Inuit.

  VII HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, AND CLOTHING Inuit homes are of two kinds: walrus or sealskin tents for summer and huts or houses for winter. Winter houses are usually made of stone, with a driftwood orwhalebone frame, chinked and covered with moss or sod. The entrance is a long, narrow passage just high enough to admit a person crawling on hands and knees.During long journeys some Canadian Inuit build igloos, winter houses of snow blocks piled in a dome shape (the term igloo comes from the I...

• Ancient Rome .

  attributed to Numa, including the selection of virgins to be priestesses of the goddess Vesta. He also established a calendar to differentiate between normal workingdays and those festival days sacred to the gods on which no state business was allowed. His peaceful reign lasted from 715 to 673 BC. Under Tullus Hostilius (672–641 BC) the Romans waged an aggressive foreign policy and began to expand their lands by the conquest of nearby cities like Alba Longa. When the warlike King Hostilius co...

• Ancient Rome - USA History.

  attributed to Numa, including the selection of virgins to be priestesses of the goddess Vesta. He also established a calendar to differentiate between normal workingdays and those festival days sacred to the gods on which no state business was allowed. His peaceful reign lasted from 715 to 673 BC. Under Tullus Hostilius (672–641 BC) the Romans waged an aggressive foreign policy and began to expand their lands by the conquest of nearby cities like Alba Longa. When the warlike King Hostilius co...

• incubus Roman In folklore and very early religious beliefs, an evil spirit or devil that came out at night and sat on the chests of sleeping people.

• African Music I INTRODUCTION Sacred Christian Music of Nigeria Among the Igede people of Nigeria, Christianity has been syncretized with the existing religious belief system.

  III INSTRUMENTS Traditional Timbila of MozambiqueAmong the Chopi, who have lived for centuries along the coast of Mozambique, there is a highly developed tradition ofsongwriting and composing for timbila (xylophone) orchestras. Elaborate migodo (dance suites), interspersed with poeticsongs pertaining to village life, are often performed to these compositions. Timbila music is now recognized as the nationalmusic of Mozambique."Eduardo Durao Mauaia" from Eduardo Durao and Orquestra Durao: Timbil...

• Essay : Stranger in the village

  people are courteous, he still can feel that he is not welcomed in this village where people are racist and narrow-minded.               The reactions of the villagers can partially be explained by their lack of culture and their narrow-mindedness. Indeed, these people live in a tiny village which is cut of the outside world.  They have to go to the village at the foot of the mountain to see a movie or go to the bank as there is no movie house, no bank nor library in the village. It seems that p...

• Anthropology.

  humans, such as tools, pottery, and buildings) and human fossils (preserved bones). They also examine past environments to understand how natural forces, such as climate and available food, shaped the development of human culture. Some archaeologists study cultures that existed before the development of writing, a time knownas prehistory . The archaeological study of periods of human evolution up to the first development of agriculture, about 10,000 years ago, is also called paleoanthropology....

• Galileo I INTRODUCTION Galileo (1564-1642), Italian physicist and astronomer who, with German astronomer Johannes Kepler, initiated the scientific revolution that flowered in the work of English physicist Sir Isaac Newton.

  V WORK IN ASTRONOMY During most of his time in Padua, Galileo showed little interest in astronomy, although in 1595 he declared in a letter that he preferred the Copernican theory that Earthrevolves around the Sun to the assumptions of Aristotle and Ptolemy that planets circle a fixed Earth ( see Astronomy: The Copernican Theory ; Ptolemaic System). A Observations with the Telescope In 1609 Galileo heard that a telescope had been invented in Holland. In August of that year he constructed a t...

• Galileo.

  V WORK IN ASTRONOMY During most of his time in Padua, Galileo showed little interest in astronomy, although in 1595 he declared in a letter that he preferred the Copernican theory that Earthrevolves around the Sun to the assumptions of Aristotle and Ptolemy that planets circle a fixed Earth ( see Astronomy: The Copernican Theory ; Ptolemaic System). A Observations with the Telescope In 1609 Galileo heard that a telescope had been invented in Holland. In August of that year he constructed a t...

• Franklin Pierce.

  At the end of the war, Pierce returned home to his wife and six-year-old son. His law partnership had been dissolved, and he took a new partner. The new firm, like theold one, was highly successful. D Elder Statesman Pierce was by nature a politician. Although still in his early forties, as a retired U.S. senator he became New Hampshire's elder statesman and head of a group of lawyer-politicians called the Concord Clique, or the Regency. The group controlled the state's Democratic Party. Pierce...

• Franklin Pierce

  At the end of the war, Pierce returned home to his wife and six-year-old son. His law partnership had been dissolved, and he took a new partner. The new firm, like theold one, was highly successful. D Elder Statesman Pierce was by nature a politician. Although still in his early forties, as a retired U.S. senator he became New Hampshire's elder statesman and head of a group of lawyer-politicians called the Concord Clique, or the Regency. The group controlled the state's Democratic Party. Pierce...

• James Polk.

  1824. Jackson had won a plurality of the popular and electoral votes. But because he lacked a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives had todecide the election among the three candidates with the highest number of electoral votes. When Henry Clay, the candidate who had come in fourth, swung his supportto Adams, Adams won the election. Polk, with his firm belief in democratic rule, held that the election of Adams was a violation of the people's will. In his first speech befo...

• James Polk

  1824. Jackson had won a plurality of the popular and electoral votes. But because he lacked a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives had todecide the election among the three candidates with the highest number of electoral votes. When Henry Clay, the candidate who had come in fourth, swung his supportto Adams, Adams won the election. Polk, with his firm belief in democratic rule, held that the election of Adams was a violation of the people's will. In his first speech befo...

• Ancient Egypt.

  around 4500 BC. The style and decoration of the pottery found at these sites differ from those of pottery found in Upper Egypt. The northern type eventually fell out of use. Other differences between the peoples in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt include the nature of their architecture and the arrangements for burial of the dead, thelatter perhaps signifying differing religious beliefs. B Unification and Early Dynastic Period By 3500 BC, the settlement of Hierakonpolis, located on the west bank...

• Ancient Egypt - USA History.

  around 4500 BC. The style and decoration of the pottery found at these sites differ from those of pottery found in Upper Egypt. The northern type eventually fell out of use. Other differences between the peoples in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt include the nature of their architecture and the arrangements for burial of the dead, thelatter perhaps signifying differing religious beliefs. B Unification and Early Dynastic Period By 3500 BC, the settlement of Hierakonpolis, located on the west bank...

• Middle East - Geography.

  though overall they have improved considerably since the 1970s. This variation reflects the different levels of wealth and development in countries of the Middle East. Inthe highly developed country of Israel the infant mortality rate was 8 deaths per 1000 live births in 1997. By comparison, the rate per 1000 live births was 71 in less-developed Egypt and 75 in Yemen. A Ethnic Groups and Languages Arabs make up the majority of the people of the Middle East, accounting for almost the entire popu...

• Fascism.

  values as coming before a radical political transformation. Others argue that a radical political transformation will then be followed by a change in values. Fascists claimthat the nation has entered a dangerous age of mediocrity, weakness, and decline. They are convinced that through their timely action they can save the nation fromitself. Fascists may assert the need to take drastic action against a nation's 'inner' enemies. Fascists promise that with their help the national crisis will end an...

• Christianity.

  history of architecture. See Basilica; Church; Early Christian Art and Architecture;Prayer. C Christian Life The instruction and exhortation of Christian preaching and teaching concern all the themes of doctrine and morals: the love of God and the love of neighbor, the twochief commandments in the ethical message of Jesus (see Matthew 22: 34-40). Application of these commandments to the concrete situations of human life, bothpersonal and social, does not produce a uniformity of moral or polit...

• Native American Art I INTRODUCTION Native American Art, the visual works crafted by indigenous people of North America, starting after their arrival on the continent thousands of years ago and continuing until the present.

  artists in the Ohio area cut delicate flat forms from sheets of mica in the shape of birds, human figures, and large hands. They also carved quite natural-looking birdsand animals on stone platform pipes. These figures sat on the pipe’s flat base, or platform, and on some pipes they were part of the pipe bowl. Prominent people ofthese cultures were buried with a wealth of ornaments, such as jewelry of shells and copper, and headdresses elaborated with animal forms. The period of Mississippian cu...

• Native American Literature I INTRODUCTION Leslie Marmon Silko Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko is perhaps best known for her first novel, Ceremony (1977), a coming-of-age story about a young man of mixed Native American and white ancestry.

  SequoyahNative Americans did not use a complex written language before the immigration of Europeans to the Americas. In theearly 1820s the Cherokee leader Sequoyah developed an alphabet and written language for his native tongue. ManyCherokee learned the new written language readily, and in 1828 they published the first Native American newspaper,written in both Cherokee and English.THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE Before Native Americans came into contact with Europeans, many tribes supplemented the spoken...

• Psychology.

  Clinical psychology is dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illnesses and other emotional or behavioral disorders. More psychologists work in this field than in any other branch of psychology. In hospitals, community clinics, schools, and in private practice, they use interviews and tests to diagnose depression,anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. People with these psychological disorders often suffer terribly. They experience disturbing symptoms t...

• Law. I INTRODUCTION Law, body of official rules and regulations, generally found in

  their rules are reviewable by the courts. U.S. constitutional law is the most extensive and pervasive of any country in the world. It is embodied in the Constitution and in the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Courtrendered over time. Through its power of judicial review, the Supreme Court may invalidate any legislation or other governmental actions that it finds to be in violationof the Constitution. Constitutional courts in some civil-law countries have similar powers. In the United Kingdom no equ...

• Confucianism.

  IV NEO-CONFUCIANISM After centuries of intellectual and cultural dominance by Buddhism, China began to experience a revival of Confucian thought during the Tang dynasty ( AD 618-907). It was led by poet and essayist Han Yu (Han Yü). Han Yu attacked Buddhism and Daoism, which he believed had kept government officials from seeing how they couldhelp the people. To further public welfare, he urged them to study the way of the ancient sages through the Five Classics . Han Yu almost lost his life f...

• Protestantism.

  F England The Anglican Church became the established church in England when Henry VIII assumed (1534) the ecclesiastical authority over the English church that had previouslybeen exercised by the pope. Henry’s motive was to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragón rather than to reform church doctrine, and he imposed severe lawsupholding the major tenets of medieval Catholicism. Under King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, however, the Anglican Church developed a distinctly Protestant creedthat w...

• Christmas.

  The new custom of Christmas gift giving allowed the marketplace to exert an unprecedented influence on holiday celebrations. Commercial innovations such asdepartment stores and mass advertising further expanded the custom of exchanging Christmas gifts. Seasonal retail sales helped fuel the economy, causing merchantsand advertisers to become some of the season’s most ardent promoters. Many holiday celebrants regretted these changes, however, and began voicing the nowcommon lament that Christmas h...

• Child Development.

  developmental scientists have studied how cultural values guide the skills and attitudes that children acquire as they mature, and how brain maturation influences thedevelopment of thinking and feeling. For a more detailed discussion of child development theories, see the Theories of Child Development section of this article. III BASIC QUESTIONS A Nature and Nurture Scholars have long debated the relative importance of nature (hereditary influences) and nurture (environmental influences) i...

• American Literature: Poetry I INTRODUCTION Phyllis McGinley American poet and author Phyllis McGinley composed light, witty verse, much of which deals with family life.

  Taylor, a poet of great technical skill, wrote powerful meditative poems in which he tested himself morally and sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In“God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triumph of good over evil in thehuman soul. All of Taylor’s poetry and much of Bradstreet’s served generally personal ends, and their audience often consisted of themselves and their family andclosest frie...