Werkmeister Conference: Historical Conceptions of Belief

Notions of belief have a long and complex history in philosophy, one riddled with ambiguities and open questions. Inspired by Plato’s account of doxa (alternately translated as “beliefs” or as “opinions”) in The Republic and Theaetetus, subsequent philosophers have continued to investigate belief’s relations to other cognitive states and especially to knowledge. However, in connection with religion, the same or similar notions are often treated in connection with “faith” and distinguished sharply from opinion—and regarded as standing on a foundation wholly distinct from that of other cognitive states. This approach is commonly found in Medieval philosophy but also many modern thinkers, including Immanuel Kant, who regarded such “belief” (“Glaube,” in German) as crucial to being a moral agent. Much later, William James would come to argue that believing can sometimes be justified, in absence of decisive evidence in favor of truth, in light of its practical value. The aim of this conference is to bring together specialists from across the historical spectrum to answer a single question: How did different philosophers think about belief in different time periods?

In addition to speakers who will be selected from the submissions, the conference will feature the following invited speakers:

Andrew Chignell (Princeton University Departments of Philosophy and Religion)Scott MacDonald (Cornell University Sage School of Philosophy)Teresa Morgan (Yale Divinity School)Jessica Moss (New York University Department of Philosophy)Kristin Primus (University of California, Berkeley Department of Philosophy)