Willed Faith and Belief An essay on Kierkegaard Can we will to believe what we choose? Are there times when we should at least try to believe in something? If it were easy to manipulate our own beliefs, low self-esteem would vanish, the divorce rate would decline, and over-consumption would disappear with the reminder: "I already have enough stuff." Yet there is something suspect about willed beliefs. Perhaps it is not ethically responsible to change beliefs without regard for the truth of the matter.1 And the epistemological coherence of the notion is questionable. Perhaps belief states are just not the kind of things that are under the influence of our will - analogous to the fact that we cannot decide to perceive blueness when looking at a red apple. This is an issue that has attracted some interest in the course of the history of thought. In thi....

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Number Of Words: 5162

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