Closed belief system
What is the difference between open and closed belief system
open system is giving the chance to explore new facts, closed belief system is when they only go off what they already know and dont let any new information in
Horton 1973 suggests religion , magic and many other belief system can be seen as closed. That is they make knowledge-claims that cannont bw successfully overturned . whenever its fundamental beleifs are threatened, a close belief system has a number of devices of get out clauses that reinforces the system and prevent it from being disproved and at least in the eyes of belivers.
Azande tribe-
they are an example of a close belief system as they dont let any new information, facts or evidence enter their religious beleifs. they believe that natrual events have natural causes. Such as if a snake bit them they would think why me? why now? due to them thinking something supernatural has happened in order for this to happen.
evans- pitchard argues that this belief system preforms usesful for social functions.
picked out that this belief system is highly resitant to challenges that is, it is a closed system that cannont be over turned by evidence.
believers are trapped within their own idiom or belief or way of thinking because they accept the systems basic assumptions such as witchcraft meaning they cant change it.
self sustaining beliefs
polanyi - 1958 argues that all belief systems have three devices to sustain themseleves in the face of of apparently controdictory evidence.
Circualrity- each idea in the system is explained in terms of another idea within the system and so on round and round.
subsidiary explanantions- for example, if the oracle fails it may be explained away as due to the incorrect use of benge.
denial of legitmacy to rivals- belief systems reject alternative worldviews but refusing to grant any legtimacy to their basic assumptions.
science as a closed belief system
book publised book disegarding some fundamentalist beliefs
some scientists did not even read and were quick to reject- closed system
boycott of veilkovsy published was organised
some lost jobs who helped his theories
kuhn 1970 argues that a mature science is such as geology, biology, or physics is based on a set of shared assumptions that he calls a paradigm. The paradigm tells scientists what reality is like and what problems to study and what methods and equiment
he says that scientists to fufill their job need to fill in the details.
argue that all knowledge including scientific is socially constructed and is rather an objective truth and is created by social groups using resources avalible to them.