Belief – an anthropological phenomenon susceptible to disruption

Abstract

Belief is a specifically human phenomenon encompassing a multitude of meanings. It includes the pre-personal “I believe that …” (Latin: putare), as well as the personal and transpersonal “I believe you …” (Latin: credere). Belief shares with other specifically human phenomena that one of its precursors, trust, is also found in more highly developed mammals, and that it is susceptible to disruption. In a mature form, it involves a trusting relationship with a higher being or a higher idea. Ideologies and delusions are errant forms of belief: while the believer accepts reality, the ideologist excludes it, and the delusional person reconstructs it. Fundamentalism is a special form of ideology that has become particularly relevant at present in the context of a crisis in our society. Even to think that one believes in nothing is a belief, namely in believing in nothing.