Introduction

Abstract

This book is primarily concerned with delineating certain salient epistemological features of belief. Beliefs are generally distinguished from other cognitive states by possessing certain epistemic traits. When we ascribe beliefs and desires to a certain creature, we are, in effect, trying to make rational sense of its doings. Rationality and coherence are thus of the essence of belief. It has, however, been claimed that these epistemic characteristics of belief are not only threatened by internal incoherence but also by certain widely shared views in recent philosophical thought. This book aims at challenging such claims by providing an in-depth analysis of some of these distinctive features of belief and their consequences. My principle objective is to provide a re-examination of the epistemic features of belief and show how they can be consistent with some of the widely held views in philosophy, yielding, in the end, a unified and coherent picture of the epistemology of belief.