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Doug says:
May I suggest the word "faith".
Although those who wish to discredit the idea of "faith" use the word in this way, I do not agree that this is what is meant by it. "Faith" simply refers to belief which is derived apart from (though not necessarily contradictory to) empirical evidence, and does not necessarily imply any personal desire to believe or not to believe.
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Jackie, thank you for the welcome and also for the support of the usage that I am looking for. The way you described these words is exactly the way Freud uses them. As opposed to an "illusion", a "delusion" is when someone believes something that simply isn't true, and their desire to believe it is not the issue. But with an illusion (as in your example with the test) the issue is the fact that you believe it because you WANT to believe it.
Also, for the sake of others (like Chickie) I certainly am not trying to limit the usage of these terms to these usages exclusively and I understand the other ways in which they are commonly understood.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well put Jackie-- In reply to:
Example: I come home from school with the illusion that I have done well on a test.
If I find I did in fact get a good grade, then my illusion turned out to be correct.
If I come home saying I did well on the test, even though I put wild guesses for answers, that is a delusion.
and a "magician" is now often called an illusionist-- we know that they are not really sawing the woman in half, pulling rabbits out of hats--but we are not deluded- even as we "see" something that we know is not logical or sometimes even possible.
If we thought the illusionist was really perfoming magic-- and was really cutting the woman in half, and then rejoining the parts-- that would be delusional.
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Fowler seems to suggest that the word you are looking for is "delusion": "A delusion is a belief that, though false, has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as the truth, and so may be expected to influence action." He defines "illusion" as "an impression that, though false, is entertained provisionally on the recommendation of the senses or the imagination, but awaits full acceptance and may be expected not to influence action."
Fowler also calls a magician's real actions a delusion, while what he seems to do is an illusion, and the belief that he does what he seems to do is also a delusion.
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Omnium says:
Fowler seems to suggest that the word you are looking for is "delusion": "A delusion is a belief that, though false, has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as the truth, and so may be expected to influence action." He defines "illusion" as "an impression that, though false, is entertained provisionally on the recommendation of the senses or the imagination, but awaits full acceptance and may be expected not to influence action."
Although it may seem like I'm splitting hairs here, the idea that you say Fowler is talking about here is not really what I'm looking for. Remember that I want a word that captures the idea that it doesn't matter whether what the person believes is actually true or false, simply that it is something they believe because they WANT to believe it. THIS is how Freud makes use of the word.
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Concerning:
Remember that I want a word that captures the idea that it doesn't matter whether what the person believes is actually true or false, simply that it is something they believe because they WANT to believe it.
Then I don't think you can use the word "illusion" either, as that word definitely refers to a false impression.
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Concerning:
"Then I don't think you can use the word "illusion" either, as that word definitely refers to a false impression."
You see, that is exactly what is at issue here. I understand that the general usage of the word "illusion" implies false belief. But that is not the way Freud used it, and I'm coming to the point where I don't think I necessarily need to use it that way either. I'm thinking that to follow his lead here would provide a whole new and very useful sense of the word. After all, that's how good words come to be - there's an idea that can't be expressed without all kinds of explanations and examples, and then someone comes along and pins that idea to a specific word and it eventually becomes accepted as legitimate. I think that it would be much better to do this with the word "illusion" rather than make up a random word of my own, since the path has already been cut by a well known author and since this word already carries at least a similar meaning. As I am sure many of you can already tell, I am not exactly a conservative linguaphile.
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joelsephus wrote:
You see, that is exactly what is at issue here. I understand that the general usage of the word "illusion" implies false belief. But that is not the way Freud used it, and I'm coming to the point where I don't think I necessarily need to use it that way either. I'm thinking that to follow his lead here would provide a whole new and very useful sense of the word. After all, that's how good words come to be - there's an idea that can't be expressed without all kinds of explanations and examples, and then someone comes along and pins that idea to a specific word and it eventually becomes accepted as legitimate. I think that it would be much better to do this with the word "illusion" rather than make up a random word of my own, since the path has already been cut by a well known author and since this word already carries at least a similar meaning. As I am sure many of you can already tell, I am not exactly a conservative linguaphile.
All I'm suggesting is that "delusion" is closer to your meaning than is "illusion" if you're willing to overlook the requirement that the belief must be false. Fowler's definition of "delusion" that says it "has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as the truth" is very close to your desire for a word that expresses "believing in something simply because you want to believe it." The word "illusion," on the other hand, implies something that is believed in because of some trick of the senses.
I don't think that Freud's use of the word "illusion" necessarily gives it any greater authority. Didn't he write originally in German, and wouldn't the use of the word "illusion" have been chosen by a translator, not by Freud?
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Omnium wrote:
"Didn't he write originally in German, and wouldn't the use of the word "illusion" have been chosen by a translator, not by Freud?"
I'd have to go and check on whether Freud only wrote in German, but I'm fairly certain that he also spoke english, and there's also the fact that in his writings he distinguished "illusion" from "delusion".
Also, aside from this issue, I'm also wondering if perhaps someone knows the etymology of these two words and what roots separate one from the other etymologically. I am by no means a linguist, but I'm guessing there's probably some latin root word like "lucere" which means to illuminate, and these two somehow are born from there. But I'd much prefer to leave that sort of work to the real experts who haunt the shadows of this electronic nether world.
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Carpal Tunnel
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But I'd much prefer to leave that sort of work to the real experts who haunt the shadows of this electronic nether world.That's no way to talk about tsuwm. Or Minnesota, either, come to think of it. Sick'em, boy! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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