ABSTRACT
Introduction – Epistemology from the outside and from the inside In the context of a symposium on beliefs it seems important to introduce also a discussion of doubt. Questions of doubt refl ect something crucial about the notion of belief itself, and in particular the character of certainty which attaches itself to beliefs. Further, a focus on doubt, or more precisely on the emergence of doubt within the framework of belief, can also illuminate some central aspects of belief. Firstly a consideration of doubt can throw some light on the relation between knowledge and belief, and, secondly, on the character of the social relations which sustain each of these forms of understanding.
