| The essay to read is “The Will To Believe” from William James. This is where the term “leap of faith” was coined. That illustration shows that, at least where self-confidence is concerned, belief in one’s own capabilities can greatly influence the outcome. Do not read this as a rebuttal to your last point; it’s a nuance, and may be limited to one’s own self-conception. That essay also discusses the circumstances where it makes sense to respect non-rational[1] beliefs: > Genuine option – "we may call an option a genuine option when it is of the forced, living, and momentous kind"[0] All of those terms are precisely defined in the essay, and the Wikipedia article has a decent lightning summary. The point is, when you are faced with coming up with a personal philosophy or set of guiding principles, you are forced to figure it out, and science is not (yet or possibly ever) capable of providing answers to those questions for most people. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Will_to_Believe#Sections... [1]
I prefer the term “non-rational” here because “irrational” has connotations of “going against rational thought” whereas “non-rational” implies “areas which are not covered by rational thought.” |