Interdisciplinary Studies on the Human Condition
Responsibility in the Construction of Beliefs
A Dictionary of Psychology (Colman, 2009) defines belief as being “stronger than a baseless opinion but not as strong as an item of knowledge.” This simple phrase disposes that the individual who believes in a particular item is indubitably convinced of that item to the contradictory belief that is disposed by objective factors. This implies that a person has structured ideas to be convinced of his initial belief but has the lucidity to understand the correct and well delineated facts of reality. Up to this point a person should be held accountable for what they believe if they have been presented with the correct information that contradicts their initial ideas. However, there are special cases of people with certain psychiatric illnesses who have lost touch with reality, their beliefs being more than validated for them against the deliberate logical explanations of those around them. No matter how informed or uninformed an individual may be they will be reinforced by the laws and social (norms or structures) that they are forced to abide by. The law must be followed, but not necessarily obeyed blindly. We can question why certain rules exist, but within a socially accepted context, this scrutiny should never translate into breaking or flouting the law.) Our beliefs — whether political, religious, or otherwise — must be expressed in a peaceful and non-aggressive manner. Otherwise, if this protocol is not respected the belief begins to violate the other person’s rights and becomes illegal and unethical. When it comes to what we believe, we can focus on Aristotle’s way of thinking. He expresses that the imagination is the one we possess, in which we have absolute control, but what we believe is somewhat random and uncontrollable by our own person. This particular piece of thinking
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