From here. btw this thread was one of the many discussions that helped form my views about what wud later become the essay about begging the question, and the essay about how to define “deductive argument” and “inductive argument”.
Reconstructo
Do you know much about Jung’s theory of archetypes? If so, what do you make of it?
Kennethamy
I don’t make much of Jung. Except for the notions of introversion and extroversion. Not my cup of tea. As I said, we don’t create our own beliefs. We acquire them. Beliefs are not voluntary.
Emil
They are to some extend but not as much as some people think (Pascal’s argument comes to mind).
Kennethamy
Yes, it does. And that is an issue. His argument does not show anything about this issue. He just assumes that belief is voluntary He does talk about how someone might acquire beliefs. He advises, for instance, that people start going to Mass, and practicing Catholic ritual. And says they will acquire Catholic beliefs that way. It sounds implausible to me. It is a little like the old joke about a well-known skeptic, who puts a horseshoe on his door for good luck. A friend of his sees the horseshoe and says, “But I thought you did not believe in that kind of thing”. To which the skeptic replied, “I don’t, but I hear that it works even if you don’t believe it”.