Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Doxastic
/dɒkˈsæstɪk/adjective
Concerning belief rather than knowledge, especially in logic and epistemology.
The Greek roots
δόξα
dóxa
opinion, belief
Literally: “having to do with opinion”
Follow a root:δόξα8 words
The story of the word
δόξα started as what seems to be the case: opinion, appearance, reputation. Plato set it against ἐπιστήμη, real knowledge, and that split still organises epistemology. Christian Greek then dragged δόξα toward glory, which is why a doxology praises God while doxastic logic models nothing more than what someone believes. Jaakko Hintikka gave the modern formal system its shape in 1962.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → philosophical coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
orthodoxparadoxdoxologyheterodox
In a sentence
The paradox is doxastic, not factual: it arises only from what the agent believes about her own beliefs.