1) is faith an emotion or a thought? What if it is neither — Gregory

Could faith be irrational and unjustified beliefs? Rational and justified beliefs are knowledge.

Could faith be irrational and unjustified beliefs? Rational and justified beliefs are knowledge — Corvus

Hold on, we shouldn' jump to conclusions if there is any doubt. There is knowledge. It is always contingent, howevet, and beliefs that may transcend reason perhaps are not irrational but maybe a-rational. Let's consider great phlosophers who defended faith. First therr is Kant, a man who proved the proofs for God wrong. But for the sake if morality he put faith on the highest pedistal. Then there is Kierkegaard who said faith must crucify reason. Finally we have Bergson, who's complaints against reason got his books placed on the Church's forbidden Index. It is easy to say "ye but you are using reaso to refute reason. Isn't that contradictory?" I would respond as saying truth might be beyond reason, so giving up at least some reason to let in all that is faith, might not be a bad idea. Paradoxically, reason needs space in order to breath, and that "space" might just be faith

are the purpose of koans to bring out faith? — Gregory

It’s rather odd to ask this question in this context. A Zen koan is a deliberately puzzling or paradoxical challenge intended to demonstrate the inadequacy of discursive knowledge in the pursuit of satori. That is quite a different thing to what is usually understood as religious faith.

Hold on, we shouldn' jump to conclusions if there is any doubt. There is knowledge. It is always contingent, — Gregory

Knowledge requires verification and evidence for its validity. When the object or existence under investigation is lacking such requirements, but still folks think or believe in the truths or existence of such objects, then they have faith rather than knowledge. No?

beliefs that may transcend reason perhaps are not irrational but maybe a-rational. — Gregory

What do you mean by "may transcend"? a-rational? Isn't it just another way of saying irrational?

That is quite a different thing to what is usually understood as religious — Wayfarer

You seem to be limiting faith to Western religion. Does Buddhism have a word for faith? Do they reject its content?

What do you mean by "may transcend"? a-rational? Isn't it just another way of saying irrational — Corvus

Try this: imagine you're in the 60's and you are tripping on acid. You have thoughts of a round triangle. When you sober up the idea lingers. Now reason may say such a thing is impossible, but something opened that got you "out of the box". I propose this as chemically induced faith. Now pure faith is doing this such that you aren't on sonething which you have to sober up from. I want to know more about what faith is. As the faith devours the reason, what can reason say about it?

To me, faith refers to a mental phenomenon, a thought for example, that can be right or wrong.

Faith is belief in things unseen. It is precisely not knowledge. It is not verified.

Try this: imagine you're in the 60's and you are tripping on acid. You have thoughts of a round triangle. When you sober up the idea lingers. Now reason may say such a thing is impossible, but something opened that got you "out of the box". I propose this as chemically induced faith. — Gregory

That sounds like hallucination rather than faith. Faith is also underlying motive for the actions aiming at certain achievements or enlightenment. Faith is not purposeless.

Well usually faith is motive for actions for some practices aiming to achieve something or know something. But some folks don't have that for their beliefs in something, and just have faith with no reason or sense. We call the faith in that case as "blind faith".

To me, faith refers to a mental phenomenon, a thought for example, that can be right or wrong — MoK

I was thinking faith was of the will, not the intellect.

Faith is belief in things unseen. It is precisely not knowledge. It is not verified — prothero

That's how saint paul defines it. But what motive have we to have faith? Is the world a simulation? Does it take a natural faith to accept it's not? Can i "prove" my gramma is not really a extra terrestrial imposter as of yesterday? Is modern philosophy too doubtful? Did Descartes make a mistake?

. Faith is also underlying motive for the actions aiming at certain achievements or enlightenment. Faith is not purposeless — Corvus

Yes i think all religions point to faith. There are times when i believe faith can literally move mountains, but my mind is never strong enough to endure the confusion. OCD addiction to thinking i suppose

I was thinking faith was of the will, not the intellect. — Gregory

The act of intellect is due existence of faith. Persistence in intellectual activity is due to the will though.

Thinking is based on faith? Hegel said that in his latter lectures on the proofs for God. Will has control over the intellect though, which is one reason i think the intellect is not the superior faculty.. Will is never blind. There is a certain innate knowledge pure will by itself without input from the intellect

is faith an emotion or a thought? — Gregory

While responding to a comment in the "Logical Arguments for God Show a Lack of Faith" thread, it struck me that what is called "faith" is the same thing as what I call "intuition." It is not a fundamentally religious mental process - it's applied to everything we do and everything we know every day. That doesn't address the question of whether it is a valid way of knowing, but I think it puts a different perspective on it. Failing to recognize the fact that they are the same allows the religious bigotry endemic here on the forum to draw mislead conclusions.

Failing to recognize the fact that they are the same allows the religious bigotry endemic here on the forum to draw mislead conclusions — T Clark

Well this relates to my number 2 question. I think the East talks about faith in terms of intuition and certain Western philosophers do as well. Orthodoxy frowns on intuition more often than reason because it is seen as esoteric

Yes i think all religions point to faith. There are times when i believe faith can literally move mountains, but my mind is never strong enough to endure the confusion. OCD addiction to thinking i suppose — Gregory

Faith itself doesn't do anything, It is just beliefs on something. To move mountains, you must hire some cranes and bulldozers, and dig them out with your own labor.

Faith itself doesn't do anything, It is just beliefs on something. To move mountains, you must hire some cranes and bulldozers, and dig them out with your own labor — Corvus

That's the perspective of materialism yes

That's the perspective of materialism yes — Gregory

No. It is called realism.

No. It is called realism — Corvus

What's the difference?

What's the difference? — Gregory

Materialism is a way to interpret the world. Realism is also an interpretation suppose, but it includes and emphasizes on the direct action, and interaction with the world. Not just interpretation.

Well reality is not relative to the body. We don't know the future however. As Hume argues, the sun may not rise tomorrow. Who is to say what butterfly effected that? Where do we empirically find the prime mover of caused events?

Where do we empirically find the prime mover of caused events? — Gregory

The world don't care about us, and it goes its own ways. But we do what we can.

world don't care about us, and it goes its own ways. But we do what we can — Corvus

What do you think of Schopenhauer when he says the world IS our Will? And have you ever listened to Jim Newman the non-dualist? He's got lots of stuff on youtube. He's ideas are fascinating in light of Schopenhauer

What do you think of Schopenhauer when he says the world IS our Will? — Gregory

Is that what he said? I thought the world was sheer will and our experience was just representation, hence the title "Will and Representation". Will is the naturre of Kant's thing in itself?

Is that what he said? I thought the world was sheer will and our experience was just representation, hence the title "Will and Representation". Will is the naturre of Kant's thing in itself — prothero

Well for him Will is real, is noumena. Experience is just empirical

Thinking is based on faith? — Gregory

Yes. When we think about a subject we have faith that the idea we are trying to develop may be correct. It is however through the processes of thinking that we may reach a correct conclusion.

Hegel said that in his latter lectures on the proofs for God. — Gregory

Interesting. I didn't know that.

Will has control over the intellect though, which is one reason i think the intellect is not the superior faculty... — Gregory

Correct.

Will is never blind. There is a certain innate knowledge pure will by itself without input from the intellect. — Gregory

I don't think that there is such a thing as innate knowledge. What we call thinking is a trial and error process. We take one root and proceed. It might be fruitful or we might reach a dead end without any conclusion. Therefore, will is blind.

I don't think that there is such a thing as innate knowledge. What we call thinking is a trial and error process. We take one root and proceed. It might be fruitful or we might reach a dead end without any conclusion. Therefore, will is blind — MoK

How can will be without thoughts? Have you considered Platonic Forms?

How can will be without thoughts? — Gregory

The will is aware of thoughts made by the intellect. It can stop a thought or let it go. By the will being blind I mean that it does not know where a thought leads to.

Have you considered Platonic Forms? — Gregory

I agree with Plato about the Froms, what I call the Absolute Truth.

I am faithful to my wife.
there is a story from i know not whence. A bridge across a chasm; you might look at the bridge and wonder if it will support you or not, and you might believe or not that it will support you. But faith is when you trust your weight to it and start to cross. Faith is putting your money or your life where your mouth is, or possibly where someone else's mouth is

1.Faith is an act, a decision, a commitment.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, - I don't know

I don't know if love is God, but I will act as if it is so.

There's a few conceptions. Sometimes faith is characterised as belief without evidence. I'm not sure how possible that is, I suspect that may just be delusion or wilful ignorance or something. More charitably, religious faith might be more bootstrappy, such that that an act of faith creates its own evidence that compels belief, perhaps. Not sure if that makes sense.