Doubt: Encyclopedia - Doubt

Doubt

Doubt is uncertainty in the context of trust (where it takes the form of distrust), action, decision or belief. It implies challenging some notion of reality in effect, and may involve hesitating to take a relevant action due to concern that one might be mistaken or at fault.

According to some spiritual and ethical traditions, it is a form of fear. A doubtful internal disposition, according to many ethical frameworks, leads to the 'poisoning' of one's reality, the world where the mind resides. In other words, one's self is constrained and indeed damaged by such notions, as they often result in inactivity and harm to others.

In line with the idea that doubts are a subtle form or symptom of a greater fear or phobia from the ego, psychologists and psychoanalysts often attribute the phenomena to the earlier stages of life, when the ego is being developed, ie. childhood. There, these traditions maintain, is where doubt about one's abilities and even one's very identity are planted. The influence of parents and other influential figures often carries heavy connotations onto the resultant self-image of the child/ego, with doubts often being included in such self-portrayals.

Cognitive mental as well as more spiritual approaches abound in response to the wide variety of causes for doubt. Rational, Socratic methods are used in Behavioral Therapy, where the person systematically asks his own mind if the doubt has any real basis. The constant confirmation is said to lead to emotional disattachment from the original doubt. This method contrasts to those of say, the Buddhist faith, which involve a more esoteric approach to doubt and inaction. Buddhism sees all doubt as a negative attachment to one's perceived past and future. To let go of the personal history of one's life and to affirm this release every day in meditation is central to release of the doubts- developed in and attached to- that history. Through much spiritual exertion, doubt can be dispelled, and at this point, one is said to live 'only in the present'.

According to other, more rational traditions, it is wholly rational and causes us to hesitate before acting, and apply more rigorous methods.

The scientific method, and to a degree all of science can be said to be entirely motivated by doubt: rather than accept the existing theories, experiments to test them continue. Technology can be seen as simply the expansion of the experiments to a wider user base, who take real risks with it. Users may no longer doubt the applicability of the theory in play, but there remain doubts about how it interacts with the real world. The process of technology transfer stages exploitation of science to ensure that doubt and danger are minimized.

Doubt is very often debated in the context of Christianity where it refers to doubt about salvation and eventual redemption in an afterlife. This issue has become particularly important in the Protestant version of this faith, where only acceptance of Jesus as a saviour and intermediary with God is required for a positive outcome. The debate is less important in most other religions and ethical traditions.

In politics, ethics and law, where very important decisions are made that often determine the course of someone's life, doubt is central, and often motivates an elaborate adversarial process to carefully sort through all the evidence to come to a decision.

A 2003 book by Jennifer Michael Hecht, titled "Doubt: A History", traces the role of doubt throughout time, all over the world, particularly regarding religion.

Doubt (play) is also the name of a 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley.

See also: FUD, skepticism, Doubting Thomas, list of ethics topics

Categories: Articles to be merged | Core issues in ethics

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Doubt", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki