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Insanity or delusions are defined as having beliefs that aren’t true. But how we come to true beliefs about the world often if not always relies on induction.

Suppose you are a person on a really tall balcony who believes he won’t die if he jumped. Almost everyone would call that irrational.

But ultimately, it would only be irrational because every other person who ever jumped off from a height like that died and would match with what we know about the physical laws of the world. But there is no guarantee that those laws would remain to be true even in the next moment. Arguably, it’s just an assumption.

All you could say is the laws in our past suggest that we would die. But nothing more.

As such, is a person who believes he won’t die more justified than someone who believes he will? If not, does this technically mean that a person with beliefs that are seen as insane by many others technically not irrational?

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    What would you do if you were on that balcony? Armchair philosophy is fine, but at the end of the day, "induction" works pretty well for all practical purposes.
    – Frank
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 2:05
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    Does this answer your question? On the circularity of induction
    – David Gudeman
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 2:19
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    If insanity and delusions are in having untrue beliefs then every human without exception is insane and delusional. Mistakes are a mark of humanity. Sanity lies in recognizing that feature and trying to avoid them. What people tend to overlook in Hume is that what reason fails to justify "must be induced by some other principle of equal weight and authority... a species of natural instincts, which no reasoning or process of the thought and understanding is able, either to produce, or to prevent... Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." By itself, it is insanity.
    – Conifold
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 3:26
  • Psychiatry is a difficult topic. You can’t reduce "insanity" to having false beliefs. Tread with caution.
    – armand
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 3:40
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    The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein.
    – user64314
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 4:35

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Why is a person who believes he won’t die [if he or she jumps off a tall balcony] more justified than someone who believes he will?

The person who believes they won’t die can make a rational estimate based on prior unsuccessful jumps. That estimate falsifies the hypothesis (the belief of a successful landing). The estimate will never be certain, but it can approach certainty, without risking the sanity of the estimator.

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    "Learn from other's mistakes. You haven't got time to make them all yourself."
    – Scott Rowe
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 2:45
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There is an "undeniably objective reality" out there. If you can accept this premise, then insanity is well-defined.

By the way, if you reject the idea of an objective reality, then allow me to hit your thumbs with a hammer. You can (presumably) choose your reaction to the event.

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