Generally speaking, belief is the conscious acceptance of the truth of a proposition.
According to Charles S. Peirce, the predisposition to act in a certain way under certain circumstances; belief is that according to which a person is ready to act.
Sometimes knowledge is defined in terms of beliefs (in a broader sense as proven, true faith). But faith is also opposed to knowledge, then faith (belief) means accepting the truth of the proposition based on the testimony or authority of another person, while knowledge means accepting on the basis of first-hand experience or one’s rational insight.
If one does not accept to follow complex arguments, but nevertheless agrees with the conclusions because of his trust in the thinker, then he believes in the truth of these conclusions; if one follows the arguments and judges that they are true, then he knows this truth, because his own rational insight, and not the trust of someone else, is the basis of acceptance.
Faith, according to Peirce, is not defined in terms of consciousness, but in those of habits of action.
Doubt is the result of a broken belief, and in turn, brings the study to life as a struggle to overcome that doubt.
The acceptance in this way of beliefs, doubts, and research tests the deeply ingrained tendency for them to be sought within reason or consciousness and apart from the world.
Belief, doubt, and inquiry must be understood through attitudes toward the lives of embodied, distinct agents, not toward those removed from life and reason.
Pragmatism stems quite naturally from these definitions of belief.
