Processes of Believing: The Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change in Creditions

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction: What We Do Not Know About Believing – Approaching a New Scientific Hot Spot

      • Hans-Ferdinand Angel, Lluis Oviedo, Raymond F. Paloutzian, Anne L. C. Runehov, Rüdiger J. Seitz

      Pages 3-15

   3. Credition: From the Question of Belief to the Question of Believing

      • Hans-Ferdinand Angel

      Pages 17-36

3. Psychology and Neuroscience

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37

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   2. Believing, Remembering, and Imagining: The Roots and Fruits of Meanings Made and Remade

      • Raymond F. Paloutzian, Katelyn J. Mukai

      Pages 39-49

   3. Connection Between Scripts Embedding Motor Schemes and Decision Making

      • Gennaro Auletta

      Pages 51-67

   4. Beliefs and Believing as Possible Targets for Neuroscientific Research

      • Rüdiger J. Seitz

      Pages 69-81

   5. Neurobiological Factors Underlying Attachment and Trust in the Believing Process

      • Corina Aguilar-Raab, Beate Ditzen

      Pages 83-95

   6. New Concepts on the Motor System: Implications for Emotions and Credition

      • Giovanni Buccino, Ivan Colagè

      Pages 97-109

   7. Neural Underpinnings of the Human Belief System

      • Irene Cristofori, Jordan Grafman

      Pages 111-123

   8. Believing in the Effectiveness of Treatment: From Placebo to Credition and Back

      • Karin Meissner

      Pages 125-137

   9. The Power to Live with Disasters: Adaptive Believing Processes of the Self and World

      • Motoaki Sugiura

      Pages 139-152

   10. Belief and Belief Formation: Insights from Delusions

       • Michael H. Connors, Peter W. Halligan

       Pages 153-165

   11. Functional and Dysfunctional Religious/Spiritual Beliefs in Psychotic Disorders

       • Human-Friedrich Unterrainer

       Pages 167-180

4. Philosophy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181

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   2. The Theory of Credition and Philosophical Accounts of Belief: Looking for Common Ground

      • Aku Visala, Hans-Ferdinand Angel

      Pages 183-193

   3. Credition and Justification

      • Anne L. C. Runehov

      Pages 195-207

   4. Hume on the Origins of Religious Belief

      • Anders Kraal

      Pages 209-216

   5. The Structure of Credition in Whitehead’s Metaphysics of Experience

      • Helmut Maaßen

      Pages 217-226

This volume answers the question: Why do we believe what we believe? It examines current research on the concept of beliefs, and the development in our understanding of the process of believing. It takes into account empirical findings in the field of neuroscience regarding the processes that underlie beliefs, and discusses the notion that beyond the interactive exploratory analysis of sensory information from the complex outside world, humans engage in an evaluative analysis by which they attribute personal meaning and relevance to the probabilistic representations of objects and events.

Beliefs exert a strong influence on behaviour, decision-making, and identifying and solving problems. Despite their importance, beliefs have until recently not been at the centre of scientific interest. In fact, “belief” is an ill-defined phenomenon. From a transdisciplinary perspective the actual approaches to understanding belief seem incompatible as they attempt to highlight such different topics as “belief – religion”, “belief – spirituality”, “belief – faith”, “belief – knowledge”, “belief – attitude”, “belief – disbelief”, “belief – illusion”, and “believing – brain function”. This situation contradicts the idea that belief is close to pathological phenomena and that it should be eliminated from scientific discussions. Rather, believing is fundamental for understanding the many problems of every-day life. In fact, the book shows that beliefs are relevant for politics, international affairs, economy, law, or religions also in modern societies. This book presents the increasing scientific interest in beliefs and believing, and reflects the change in focus from the content aspect of belief towards the fluid nature of believing.

• Bab Configuration and Space of Action
• Belief, faith and trust
• Beliefs in Relation to Each Other
• Believing and Stability as the Grounding of Faith
• Believing in the Economic Sphere
• Cognition, Affection, and Believing
• Delusions and Mind-tricks
• How Beliefs are Insulated, Changed, Stabilized, and Modulated
• Inferring Beliefs in the Minds of Others
• Placebos and Nocebos
• Processes and Functions of Believing
• Religious believing
• Scope and Reach of Creditions
• Wisdom and Knowledge in Believing

• Institute of Catechetics and Religious Education, Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Graz, Austria

  Hans-Ferdinand Angel

• Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy

  Lluis Oviedo

• Department of Psychology, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, USA

  Raymond F. Paloutzian

• Department of Theology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

  Anne L.C. Runehov

• Department of Neurology, Centre for Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

  Rüdiger J. Seitz

Hans-Ferdinand Angel, trained in theology, ancient Latin philology, and history, studied in Regensburg (Germany) and Paris. From 1996 he was Professor at the Technical University Dresden (Germany) and, since 1997, is Professor of Catechetics and Religious Education at the Karl-Franzens University Graz (Austria). He is member of the advisory committee of the Initiative of Brain Research in Syria and the scientific director of the global and interdisciplinary Credition Research Project at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz.

Lluis Oviedo, Full professor of Theological Anthropology at the Theological Faculty in Antonianum University in Rome and invited professor in the Theological Institute of Murcia (Spain) for questions of religion, society and science; and invited professor in the Theological Institute of Murcia, Spain, for faith, reason and culture. He is the co-editor for the 4 volumes Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, Springer 2013.

Raymond F. Paloutzian received his doctorate from Claremont Graduate School and is Professor Emeritus of experimental and social psychology at Westmont College, Santa Barbara (California). He edited The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion for 18 years and is consultant to the Religion, Experience, and Mind Lab Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He co-edited (with A. Kalayjian) Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Psychological Pathways to Conflict Transformation and Peace-Building, Springer, 2010.

Anne L.C. Runehov hasa Reader (Associate Professor) degree from the Uppsala University (Sweden). She earned a Doctor degree in Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University, and a Master degree in Theoretical Philosophy, major Philosophy of Mind at the same university. She is the Editor for the 4 volumes Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, Springer 2013, and member of the steering committee of the conferences “The Structure of Creditions”.

Rüdiger J. Seitz has a degree of medicine at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and is Professor of Neurology at the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf (Germany). He was Section Editor of the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, Springer 2013. He is member of the steering committee of the conferences “The Structure of Creditions” and co-director of the interdisciplinary Credition Research Project.

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