Scientific and Religious Belief

The papers contained in this volume were given at the International Con- ference on Scientific and Religious Belief which was held at the Institut fUr Wissenschaftstheorie of the International Research Center Salzburg in August 1991. The conference was understood as a research conference dealing with an area which is not yet investigated sufficiently: Aspects of interrelation between scientific and religious belief. The conference started with papers on important features of belief in gene- ral and on distinctive properties between belief, knowledge and acceptance. In the paper of Keith Lehrer they are analyzed comparatively and are also consi- dered in respect to religious belief (faith). The paper of Franz von Kutschera takes up other important features of beliefs in general to be applicable to both, scientific and religious belief: reasons (explanations for beliefs which consist essentially in other beliefs again and which allow that the agent had alternati- ves) and causes (chance events or actions).
Gerhard Schurz's special topics on non-monotonic reasoning deals with the question how our beliefs change, when our information changes, especially when the respective information is increased or completely new information is added. Is belief value-free? Is value-ladenness an essential and intrinsic cha- racteristic of belief? This question is dealt with in the paper by Elena Kleva- kina-Uljanov and applies to both scientific and religious belief.