What's Love (And Belonging) Got to do With It? Negative and Positive Conative Elements Underlying Gritty Faith

Faith and Philosophy (forthcoming)
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Abstract

There has been near unanimous agreement that faith requires having some sort of positive attitude towards the object of faith. This thesis has recently been called into question by the lone wolf, Malcolm & Scott (2021), who propose a substitute property of true grit. This paper argues that substituting the element of grit leaves an explanatory gap when it comes to explaining why one has faith; a conative attitude must underride one’s grit. Yet, it seems to me that a positive conative attitude towards the proposition in question is not required. The present account proposes that there are some cases of propositional faith where the object one’s conative attitude is not the proposition itself, but a person or group that one loves, belongs to, or identifies with. Lastly, it’s argued that a negative conative attitude, rather than strictly positive, can also explain grit and its role within propositional faith.

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Maria Waggoner
Purdue University

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