Glauben

Belief and our conception of it have been at the center of theoretical philosophy for at least a hundred years, the concept taken in its broadest sense, meaning every conceivable manner in which something is taken for truth. The question of precisely what belief is and what concept we have of it, was and remains a topic of epistemology, philosophy of mind and ontology in particular. What advice does philosophy today offer about what belief is? How good is this advice? To what extent can it be justified by the concept we have of belief? What kind of concept is that? Is it possible for us to attain knowledge of belief, at least of our own? Such are the questions this essay pursues, albeit often without a definite answer. Rather it is an attempt to elucidate why the expectation that there are such answers has no good philosophical reason – and that this is no reason to question the reality of belief.