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doxastic involantarism, states we are not free to chose our beliefs; schizophenics often talk of thoughts being forced upon them, they often have beliefs that are not normative in his society. And these beliefs are intricately structured & justified.

But these beliefs are unwilled, they come to him unbidden. They were involuntary.

Is this evidence for a doxastic involuntarism. Or is there much more to it than this?

What I mean by this, is that the formation of belief is an unwilled submerged function of the mind, and that its mainly operative during infancy until we attain full self-conciousness as an adult. In Schizophrenia, I'm suggesting that this mechanism reactivates in a faulty manner.

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According to determinism any disease has a cause for it, then we have bodily and psychological diseases. While the bodily diseases can be caused by viruses and microbes besides the others the psychological diseases can be caused by Jinns besides the other causes. I don't know if you personally believe in Jinn or not but according to Islam jinns can affect the human being psychologically, if the person is psychologically weak enough to be affected. I'm not going to say then schizophrenia is a form of contact with these commonly invisible conscious beings but rather I'm trying to consider a probability for that. Jinns have the power to show you things that never exist. However, no matter how much structured and justified be the induced ideas in the mind of a schizophrenic person if something is fake always there exist intellectual witnesses for that, but that the person can find and mention such witnesses is another issue that varies from case to case.

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Is this within the Quran, or elaborated within the tradition or hadith? I have heard of jinns, but know little about them. Who are the main commentators? – Mozibur Ullah Dec 6 '12 at 18:55
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@MoziburUllah, what is in Quran or not? Jinns or some mentally ill persons affected by them, or specifically Schizophrenia? The two former yes but the latter no. However, making this question and answer Islamic may cause your question here not to fit the philosophy.SE easily. You can ask your questions that seek for Islamic answers in Islam.SE and leave your question here open to more answers from philosophers! ;) – owari Dec 6 '12 at 19:37
I was referring to Jinns causing psychological malfunction. I don't think answering from an Islamic perspective is neccessarily wrong for this site, so long as its backed up by Islamic Philosophy as opposed to purely tradition or theology. But tradition and theology may also provide additional perspective. – Mozibur Ullah Dec 6 '12 at 21:14
Kant was brought up as a pietist, and I recall reading in Bryans Magee (British Philosopher) biography that he thought his philosophy was a rationalisation of the theology that he was brought up in. He remarked that this didn't falsify his philosophy. (Falsify, is really the wrong word to use here, its really only applicable to scientific/empiracal positions). And that he was surprised that this wasn't brought up more often. – Mozibur Ullah Dec 6 '12 at 21:17
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Thanks for your references, I understand that they refer to verses of the quran, is that [verse:line number]? Its certainly an interesting point of view, and that a lot of traditional societies would be sympathetic to. ie possession by evil spirits. I read a book recently, the title of which escapes me; but the central point it made was that clinical schizophrenia was less prevalant, and had a better chance of recovery in pre-modern societies. It referred to a study carried out by WHO (the World Health Organisation) in the 70s, I think. – Mozibur Ullah Dec 7 '12 at 5:48
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