Evolution of Doubt

In his book “Fear and Trembling”, Kierkegaard asks a lot of really fascinating questions. In the Preface, a question that stands out to me right away is the discussion on the attainability of doubt. I had never really considered the fact that doubt is something not easily attained. Without giving the idea much thought, it is of course, easy to realize how one could take the feeling of doubt for granted. According to the narrator, doubt, along with faith, is a concept that needs some time with which to become familiar. If it takes so long to acquire knowledge shouldn’t it take even longer to find reason to doubt it? Reading this seriously makes me consider the process of doubting. I suppose it is a familiar process that isn’t easily attained. One must have some sort of pre-conceived notion which they can eventually begin to doubt. But to achieve doubt, one must do some very serious thinking in regards to all the possibilities of the situation at hand. Doubt can only come after the initial assessment of the situation and the ensuing questions raised. Once you stop and think about it, doubt really is more of a process than an instinct. Perhaps everyone can eventually have doubt about things but it is not an immediate way of thinking about things. The narrator even points out that at by the time Descartes reached doubt he had denied himself everything, a process which had taken an extensive amount of time. Therefore, in order to really get with the idea of doubt one has to sit down and think about what it really means to have doubt. I’m sorry if this seems repetitive but this question really resonated with me. In order to have doubt about something shouldn’t it make sense to argue that before having doubt the individual must have some pretty serious knowledge of what it is they are doubting? I suppose that might not be true in all cases. I could find myself doubting a boyfriend’s feelings or doubting my performance on an exam, but there must be some underlying reason for that doubt. As in, maybe my boyfriend didn’t answer my text message, or maybe I felt nervous and not confident while taking the exam. Either way, doubt is not something necessarily universal, but something that must have some serious reason or personal discussion in order to occur. And again, I apologize if this post seems somewhat repetitive, but that tends to be the way in which I work out these things. This question about the nature of doubting just really makes me think about that ominous feeling and the (probably mental) actions leading up to it. I am interested to see if others agree. Do you think that doubt is an inherent thing that all people feel or do you think that it something that can only occur after great consideration? I guess in the end, I feel a bit of both. I don’t know anyone that has never felt doubt, yet I am fairly certain that a lot of thought goes into the production of doubt. Next time I am concerned about a situation I will think it through and decide whether doubt is an appropriate thing to feel.