Basic belief

Short description: Axioms under the epistemological view called foundationalism

Basic beliefs (also commonly called foundational beliefs or core beliefs) are, under the epistemological view called foundationalism, the axioms of a belief system.[example needed]

## Contents

* 1 Categories of beliefs
* 2 Description
* 3 See also
* 4 Notes and references

## Categories of beliefs

Foundationalism holds that all beliefs must be justified in order to be known. Beliefs therefore fall into two categories:

* Beliefs that are properly basic, in that they do not depend upon justification of other beliefs, but on something outside the realm of belief (a "non-doxastic justification").
* Beliefs that derive from one or more basic beliefs, and therefore depend on the basic beliefs for their validity.

## Description

Within this basic framework of foundationalism exist a number of views regarding which types of beliefs qualify as properly basic; that is, what sorts of beliefs can be justifiably held without the justification of other beliefs.

In classical foundationalism, beliefs are held to be properly basic if they are either self-evident axioms, or evident to the senses (empiricism).[1] However Anthony Kenny and others have argued that this is a self-refuting idea.[2]

* In modern foundationalism, beliefs are held to be properly basic if they were either self-evident axiom or incorrigible.[3] One such axiom is René Descartes's axiom, Cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Incorrigible (lit. uncorrectable) beliefs are those one can believe without possibly being proven wrong. Descartes argued that beliefs about the external world based on the senses can be mistaken, but many classical foundationalists still treat direct experiential senses, such as feeling pain or having a visual sensation, as incorrigible and properly basic.
* In what Keith Lehrer has called "fallible foundationalism",[4] also known as "moderate foundationalism", the division between inferential and non-inferential belief is retained, but the requirement of incorrigibility is dropped. This, it is claimed, allows the senses to resume their traditional role as the basis of non-inferential belief despite their fallibility.[5]
* In Reformed epistemology, beliefs are held to be properly basic if they are reasonable and consistent with a sensible world view.

Anti-foundationalism rejects foundationalism and denies there is some fundamental belief or principle which is the basic ground or foundation of inquiry and knowledge.[6]

## See also

* Doxastic logic
* First principle
* Mental model
* Mental representation
* Mindset
* Paradigm
* Set (psychology)
* Schema (psychology)
* Worldview

## Notes and references

1. ↑ Alvin Plantinga, Faith and Rationality, (London Notre Dame, 1983) pp. 39-44. Here Plantinga is basing his analysis on the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas.
2. ↑ Anthony Kenny, What is Faith? Oxford: OUP 1992 ISBN 0-19-283067-8 pp. 9-10. This particular chapter is based on a 1982 lecture, which may explain the shift in the meaning of the term "foundationalism" since then.
3. ↑ Alvin Plantinga, Faith and Rationality, (London Notre Dame, 1983) pp. 58-59. Here Plantinga references John Locke and René Descartes.
4. ↑ Keith Lehrer, Theory of Knowledge (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990). See also "Archived copy". http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~howardd/onlehrererkenntnis.pdf.
5. ↑ "It makes sense for people to believe what they perceive through their experience and therefore, individuals are justified in those beliefs. "Truth Awakens on Foundationalism
6. ↑ J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 100

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World view

Related terms

* Basic beliefs/Beliefs
* Collective consciousness/Collective unconscious
* Conceptual system
* Context
* Conventions
* Cultural movement
* Epic poetry/National epics/Pan-national epics
* Facts and factoids
* Framing
* Ideology
* Life stance
* Lifestyle
* Memes/Memeplex
* Mental model
* Metanarrative
* Mindset
* Norms
* Paradigm
* Philosophical theory
* Point of view
* Presuppositions
* Reality tunnel
* Received view
* Schemata
* School of thought
* Set
* Social reality
* Theory of everything
* Umwelt
* Value system

Aspects

| Biases|

* Academic
* Attentional
* Attitude polarization
* Belief
* Cognitive (list)
* Collective narcissism
* Confirmation
* Congruence
* Cryptomnesia
* Cultural
* Ethnocentrism
* Filter bubble
* Homophily
* In-group favoritism
* Magical thinking
* Media
* Observer-expectancy
* Observational error
* Selective exposure
* Selective perception
* Self-deception
* Self-fulfilling prophecy (Clever Hans effect, placebo effect, wishful thinking)
* Status quo
* Stereotyping

|

Change and
maintenance|

* Activism
* Argument
* Argumentum ad populum
* Attitude change
* Censorship
* Charisma
* Circular reporting
* Cognitive dissonance
* Critical thinking
* Crowd manipulation
* Cultural dissonance
* Deprogramming
* Echo chamber
* Education (religious, values)
* Euphemism
* Excommunication
* Fearmongering
* Historical revisionism
* Ideological repression
* Indoctrination
* Media manipulation
* Media regulation
* Mind control
* Missionaries
* Moral entrepreneurship
* Persuasion
* Polite fiction
* Political engineering
* Propaganda
* Propaganda model
* Proselytism
* Psychological manipulation
* Psychological warfare
* Religious conversion (forced)
* Religious persecution
* Religious uniformity
* Revolutions
* Rhetoric
* Self-censorship
* Social change
* Social control
* Social engineering
* Social influence
* Social progress
* Suppression of dissent
* Systemic bias
* Woozle effect

Culture|

* Anthropology (cultural, social)
* Calendars
* Ceremonies
* Coronations
* Cross-cultural psychology
* Cultural psychology
* Doctrine
* Employment/Serfdom/Slavery
* Families
* Funerals/Burial
* Games
* Holidays
* Hygiene (ritual)
* Identity (cultural)
* Institutions
* Liminality
* Liturgy
* Marriage
* Myth and ritual
* Oaths
* Pilgrimages
* Play
* Rites of passage (secular)
* Rituals
* Social class/Social status/Caste
* Symbols
* Symbolic boundaries
* Worship

Groupthink|

* Abilene paradox
* Bandwagon effect
* Collectives
* Collective behavior (animal)
* Collective effervescence
* Collective intelligence
* Conformity
* Consensus theory
* Crowd psychology
* Cults
* Culture-bound syndromes
* Deindividuation
* Democracy
* Emergence
* Emotional contagion
* Entitativity
* False-consensus effect
* Folie à deux
* Group action
* Group dynamics
* Group emotion
* Group polarization
* Groupshift
* Herd behavior
* Holism
* Hysterical contagion
* Information cascade
* Invisible hand
* Lynching
* Majoritarianism/Ochlocracy
* Mass action
* Mass hysteria
* Mass psychogenic illness
* Milieu control
* Mobbing
* Moral panic
* Organizations
* Peer pressure
* Pluralistic ignorance
* Political correctness
* Pseudoconsensus
* Scapegoating
* Self-organization
* Social action
* Social behavior
* Social emotions
* Social exclusion
* Social facilitation (animal)
* Social group
* Social proof
* Social psychology
* Sociology
* Spontaneous order
* Status quo
* Stigmergy
* Swarm behaviour
* System justification
* Viral phenomena

Knowledge|

* Axioms (tacit assumptions)
* Conceptual framework
* Epistemology (outline)
* Evidence (anecdotal, scientific)
* Explanations
* Faith (fideism)
* Gnosis
* Intuition
* Meaning-making
* Memory
* Metaknowledge
* Methodology
* Observation
* Observational learning
* Perception
* Reasoning (fallacious, logic)
* Revelation
* Testimony
* [[Social:TraditTradition (Folklore|folklore]])
* Truth (consensus theory, criteria)

Metaphysics|

* Ætiology
* Afterlife
* Anima mundi
* Being
* Causality
* Concepts
* Consciousness (mind–body problem)
* Cosmogony
* Cosmology (religious)
* Creation myth
* Deities (existence)
* Destiny
* Eschatology
* Everything/Nothing
* Evolution
* Existence
* Fiction/Non-fiction
* Free will
* Future
* History
* Ideas
* Idios kosmos
* Illusions
* Incarnation
* Information
* Intelligence
* Magic
* Matter
* Miracles
* Mythology (comparative)
* National mythoi
* Nature (philosophical)
* Ontology
* Origin myths (political myths)
* Otherworlds (axes mundi)
* Problem of evil
* Physics (natural philosophy)
* Reality
* Souls
* Spirit
* Supernature
* Teleology
* Theology
* Time
* Unobservables

Value|

* Æsthetics
* Almsgiving/Charity
* Altruism
* Autonomy
* Beauty
* Codes of conduct
* Comedy
* Common good
* Conscience
* Consent
* Creativity
* Disgust
* Duty
* Economics
* Ecstasy (emotional, religious)
* Elegance
* [[Philosophy:EEmotions (Aesthetic emotions|æsthetic]])
* Entertainment
* Eroticism
* Ethics
* Étiquette
* Family values
* Food and drink prohibitions (unclean animals)
* Golden Rule
* Guilt/Culpability
* Happiness
* Harmony
* Honour
* Human rights
* Judgement
* Justice
* Laws (jurisprudence, religious)
* Liberty (political freedom)
* Love
* Magnificence
* Maxims
* Meaning of life
* Morality (public)
* Obligations
* Peace
* Piety
* Praxeology
* Principles
* Punishment
* Qualities
* Repentance
* Reverence
* Rights
* Sexuality (ethics)
* Sin
* Social stigma
* Stewardship
* Styles
* Sublime, The
* Suffering
* Sympathy
* Taboo
* Taste
* Theodicy
* Trust
* Unspoken rules
* Virtues and Vices
* Works of art
* Wrongdoing

Examples

| Attitudes|

* Nihilism
* Optimism
* Pessimism
* Reclusion
* Weltschmerz

|

Economic and
political ideologies|

* Authoritarianism
* Anarchism
* Capitalism
* Christian democracy
* Collectivism
* Colonialism
* Communalism
* Communism
* Communitarianism
* Conservatism
* Constitutionalism
* Distributism
* Environmentalism
* Extremism
* Fanaticism
* Fascism
* Feminism
* Fundamentalism
* Globalism
* Green politics
* Imperialism
* Individualism
* Industrialism
* Intellectualism
* Islamism
* Liberalism
* Libertarianism
* Masculism
* Militarism
* Monarchism
* Nationalism
* Pacifism
* Progressivism
* Radicalism
* Reformism
* Republicanism
* Sentientism
* Social democracy
* Socialism
* Utilitarianism
* Veganism

Religions|

* African traditional religions
* Bahá'í
* Buddhism
* Cao Dai
* Cheondoism
* Chinese traditional religions
* Christianity
* Ethnic religions
* Hòa Hảo
* Hinduism
* Islam
* Jainism
* Judaism
* Korean shamanism
* Neo-Paganism
* Rastafarianism
* Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist
* Shinto
* Sikhism
* Spiritism
* Taoism
* Tenrikyo
* Tenriism
* Unitarian Universalism
* Zoroastrianism

Schools of
philosophy|

* Agriculturalism
* Aristotelianism
* Atomism
* Averroism
* Cartesianism
* Cārvāka
* Collectivism
* Confucianism/New Confucianism
* Critical theory
* Cynicism
* Cyrenaics
* Determinism
* Dualism
* Eleatics
* Empiricism
* Eretrian school
* Epicureanism
* Existentialism
* Foundationalism
* Hedonism
* Hegelianism
* Hermeneutics
* Historicism/New Historicism
* Holism
* Humanism/Renaissance humanism]]
* Illuminationism
* ʿIlm al-Kalām
* Idealism
* Individualism
* Ionian
* Kantianism/Neo-Kantianism
* Kokugaku
* Legalism
* Logicians
* Materialism
* Mohism
* Megarian school
* Modernism/Postmodernism
* Monism
* Natural Law
* Naturalism (Chinese)
* Naturalism (western)
* Nihilism
* Peripatetic
* Phenomenology
* Platonism/Neoplatonism
* Pluralism
* Positivism
* Pragmatism
* Presocratic
* Pyrrhonism
* Pythagoreanism/Neopythagoreanism
* Rationalism
* Reductionism
* Scholasticism/Neo-Scholasticism
* Sentientism
* Social constructionism
* Sophism
* Spinozism
* Stoicism
* Structuralism/Post-structuralism
* Thomism
* Transcendentalism
* Utilitarianism
* Yangism

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