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This book is an interdisciplinary study of the forms and uses of doubt in works by Homer, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Cicero, Machiavelli, Shakespeare and Montaigne. Based on close analysis of literary and philosophical texts by these important authors, Michelle Zerba argues that doubt is a defining experience in antiquity and the Renaissance, one that constantly challenges the limits of thought and representation. The wide-ranging discussion considers issues that run the gamut from tragic loss to comic bombast, from psychological collapse to skeptical dexterity and from solitary reflection to political improvisation in civic contexts and puts Greek and Roman treatments of doubt into dialogue not only with sixteenth-century texts but with contemporary works as well. Using the past to engage questions of vital concern to our time, Zerba demonstrates that although doubt sometimes has destructive consequences, it can also be conducive to tolerance, discovery and conversation across sociopolitical boundaries.

Comparative literature --- Thematology --- anno 1500-1599 --- Antiquity --- Belief and doubt --- Skepticism --- History --- History. --- Belief and doubt. --- Literatur. --- Philosophie. --- Skepticism. --- Skeptizismus. --- Zweifel. --- Conviction --- Doubt --- Consciousness --- Credulity --- Emotions --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Philosophy --- Psychology --- Religion --- Will --- Agnosticism --- Rationalism --- Arts and Humanities --- Belief and doubt - History --- Skepticism - History

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"In this chapter we discuss the psychological function of "the drive for sense-making," or our innate desire to make sense of the world. We start by discussing why sense-making generates a drive, similar to those associated with the primary reinforcers of food, water, sleep, sex, shelter, and air. In our account, the drive for sense-making fills a critical gap in purely goal-oriented cognition by motivating us to continue investing in knowledge even when we cannot foresee exactly how it will benefit us. We then examine three different factors that shape the particular form sense-making takes: (1) the practical utility of holding accurate beliefs for attaining concrete goals, (2) the motivational significance of some beliefs, which generates a desire to make sense of the world in a way that feels good, and (3) the impact of computational limitations on the sense-making process, especially our limited ability to explicitly predict what information will turn out to be useful. Finally, we turn our attention to how these factors help to explain aberrant sense-making phenomena such as conspiracy theories, science denial, and political polarization"--

Belief and doubt. --- Cognition. --- Inquiry (Theory of knowledge) --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Psychological aspects.

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This book develops in detail the simple idea that assertion is the expression of belief. In it the author puts forward a version of 'probabilistic semantics' which acknowledges that we are not perfectly rational, and which offers a significant advance in generality on theories of meaning couched in terms of truth conditions. It promises to challenge a number of entrenched and widespread views about the relations of language and mind. Part I presents a functionalist account of belief, worked through a modified form of decision theory. In Part II the author generates a theory of meaning in terms of 'assertibility conditions', whereby to know the meaning of an assertion is to know the belief it expresses.

Logic --- Lexicology. Semantics --- Conditionals (Logic) --- Truth --- Belief and doubt --- Psychology --- Conditionnels (Logique) --- Vérité --- Croyance et doute --- Psychologie --- 800.1 --- Conviction --- Philosophy --- Skepticism --- Certainty --- Necessity (Philosophy) --- Pragmatism --- Behavioral sciences --- Mental philosophy --- Mind --- Science, Mental --- Human biology --- Soul --- Mental health --- Conditional statements (Logic) --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Doubt --- Consciousness --- Credulity --- Emotions --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Religion --- Will --- Agnosticism --- Rationalism --- Taalfilosofie --- Belief and doubt. --- Psychology. --- Truth. --- 800.1 Taalfilosofie --- Conditionals (Logic). --- Vérité --- Arts and Humanities

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What was it like to be a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism? This important volume brings together for the first time a selection of Richard Bett's essays on ancient Pyrrhonism, allowing readers a better understanding of the key aspects of this school of thought. The volume examines Pyrrhonism's manner of self-presentation, including its methods of writing, its desire to show how special it is, and its use of humor; it considers Pyrrhonism's argumentative procedures regarding specific topics, such as signs, space, or the Modes; and it explores what it meant in practice to live as a Pyrrhonist, including the kind of ethical outlook which Pyrrhonism might allow and, in general, the character of a skeptical life - and how far these might strike us as feasible or desirable. It also shows how Pyrrhonism often raises questions that matter to us today, both in our everyday lives and in our philosophical reflection.

Philosophy, Ancient --- Skepticism --- Pyrrhon, --- Skepticism. --- Philosophy, Ancient. --- Philosophie antique --- Scepticisme. --- Theory of knowledge --- History of philosophy --- History of ancient Greece --- Pyrrho van Elis --- Philosophie antique. --- Pyrrhonismus. --- Pyrrhon, - of Elis --- Ancient philosophy --- Greek philosophy --- Philosophy, Greek --- Philosophy, Roman --- Roman philosophy --- Scepticism --- Unbelief --- Agnosticism --- Belief and doubt --- Free thought --- Pirron, --- Pirrone, --- Pyrrho, --- Pyrrōn,

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"David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) presents the most important account of skepticism in the history of modern philosophy. In this lucid and thorough introduction to the work, John P. Wright examines the development of Hume's ideas in the Treatise, their relation to eighteenth-century theories of the imagination and passions, and the reception they received when Hume published the Treatise. He explains Hume's arguments concerning the inability of reason to establish the basic beliefs which underlie science and morals, as well as his arguments showing why we are nevertheless psychologically compelled to accept such beliefs. The book will be a valuable guide for those seeking to understand the nature of modern skepticism and its connection with the founding of the human sciences during the Enlightenment"--Provided by publisher.

Hume, David --- Emotions (Philosophy) --- Ethics --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Philosophical anthropology --- Reason --- Skepticism --- Scepticism --- Unbelief --- Agnosticism --- Belief and doubt --- Free thought --- Mind --- Intellect --- Rationalism --- Anthropology, Philosophical --- Man (Philosophy) --- Civilization --- Life --- Ontology --- Humanism --- Persons --- Philosophy of mind --- Epistemology --- Theory of knowledge --- Philosophy --- Psychology --- Deontology --- Ethics, Primitive --- Ethology --- Moral philosophy --- Morality --- Morals --- Philosophy, Moral --- Science, Moral --- Values --- Hume, David, --- Knowledge, Theory of. --- Ethics. --- Skepticism. --- Reason. --- Philosophical anthropology. --- Arts and Humanities