Belief

Belief is the mental state in which a person holds a proposition to be true. It covers attitudes toward claims about the world, the self, and values, and is distinct from knowledge, which involves justification for truth as well as the truth itself. Propositional beliefs are about statements such as “The earth orbits the sun.” Non-propositional attitudes, such as trust or hope, are related but are not always treated as beliefs about factual claims. In everyday use, belief ranges from strong conviction to cautious acceptance and may exist even without certainty.

Beliefs arise from a mix of evidence, reasoning, upbringing, culture, and experience. They are supported or challenged by reasons, testimony, observation, and experiments, yet people can hold beliefs with varying levels of justification or confidence. Cognitive biases, motivated reasoning, and social influence can shape belief formation and change, a process studied as belief revision. Beliefs can be revised or discarded when confronted with new evidence or coherent alternatives.

Belief is central to religion, ethics, science, and politics. Religious beliefs concern transcendence or sacred practices; scientific beliefs rely on empirical evidence and testing; political beliefs influence actions and identities. Philosophers distinguish belief from knowledge and doubt, asking under what conditions a belief becomes knowledge and how rational agents should adjust beliefs in light of new information.