“How Beliefs Change” is the second in our special three-part program series on beliefs. In the first program we discussed what beliefs are, how they are formed, and the role they play in our thinking and our actions. This morning Delmarva Today looks at how beliefs change, and the role rationality plays in prompting and supporting change. Host, Harold Wilson’s guests, back for this second program, are Dr. Adam Wood, Department Head and Professor of English at Valdosta State University; Dr. Grant Wilson, Professor and Graduate Program Director Dept. of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts; and Dr. Christine A. James, Professor Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies also at Valdosta State University.
We would all like to believe that our beliefs, our perceptions of the world in which we live, and move, and act, are based on principles of rationality. But according to Joshua Rothman in his New Yorker piece in the August 23, 2001 issue, the realities of rationality are difficult and not really enough. If rationality is not enough, what are other elements that should be considered as our beliefs are challenged and changed?
