Analysis and Investigation of the Nature of Belief

Muhammad Hassan Ya’qubiyan / Assistant Professor, Shahid Motahari University

                                                                                                     mohammadyaghoobian@yahoo.com

Qasem Pur-Hassan / Associate Professor in Allama Tabataba’i University    pourhassan@yahoo.com
Received: 2019/02/08 - Accepted: 2019/07/22

ABSTRACT
The course of epistemological discussions, from Plato’s tripartite definition to Gettier’s cases as well as the contemporary epistemological discussions, has gradually gone beyond the importance of belief, focusing on truth and – more importantly – on justification. This is while the destiny of many discussions on those two parameters depends on the precise analysis of the nature of the belief. Therefore, the main issue in this study is investigating the nature of the belief and its different types as well as paying attention to the distinctive role of metaphysical beliefs in achieving the truth and knowledge. The philosophical background and the analytical approach of this article considers various types of human’s beliefs, a variety that emerges from different themes of the beliefs and is based on their destinations and their different functions, all of whom do not necessarily follow the truth and verity; and this does in itself speak of the variety in the action of belief in its various types. In this study, considering the compositional nature of belief composed of two dimensions (mental and emotional), we have attempted to challenge the unidirectional look of the philosophical and psychological views and, in view of the variety of metaphysical beliefs as well as the role of emotional and the existential properties of the believer in seeking the truth, to clarify the parallel importance of these two dimensions along with cognitive and mental compatibility of the system of beliefs.

KEY WORDS: belief, nature of belief, metaphysical beliefs, analysis of belief.