Doxa can be associated with opinion.
Doxa is a term that is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The concept, coming from Greek, refers to an opinion or a point of view .
In the field of philosophy , doxa is understood as knowledge that does not provide absolute certainty . Doxa, therefore, is apparent knowledge and not objective data. In other words: doxa does not constitute true knowledge of reality.
Some considerations
It is important to note that the original term, in Greek, can be translated as "fame or glory", although in this framework it is understood as "opinion", and that is why we are talking about knowledge that is not always true but rather revolves around the reality due to its overcrowding.
Before continuing, we must also explain the concept of habitus . Generally, the term habit is defined as the acquired predisposition that gives us a daily activity, or acting in a certain way. It is said that " behavior determines habit", precisely because when we repeat it very frequently it becomes habitual. But if we internalize the behavior, then the scheme is reversed, since "habit determines behavior."
The word habitus , therefore, can be similar to custom , understood as the repetitive practice that tends to become fixed as a result of its frequency.
Doxa according to the Greek philosophers
Several Greek philosophers focused on the issue of doxa. Parmenides used the notion to refer to the “way of opinion” , different from the “way of truth” . Plato , for his part, considered that doxa was deceptive knowledge developed from imagination and faith . In this way it was opposed to episteme , knowledge that could be justified as truth .
It can be said that doxa is linked to a point of view, which does not constitute accurate knowledge.
Continuing with Platonic philosophy, doxa would be an opinion (sensitive knowledge) a product of imagination and beliefs. The episteme, on the other hand, appears as science (intelligible knowledge) created by intuition and reasoning. That is why episteme comes closer to true knowledge, something that doxa cannot achieve.
Plato called doxophores those individuals who sought to ascend socially and profit through false knowledge. The doxa of these subjects only appeared to be knowledge , but it was not real knowledge.
Bourdieu's vision
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu , for his part, used the idea of doxa within the framework of his field theory. For Bourdieu , a field is a network of social relations that develops in a space of action . Doxa, in this context, are the motivations or ideologies that are presented as inherent to an activity and that, therefore, are not questioned.
In Bourdieu's theory , doxa is defined as those schemes of everyday life that are considered natural and, therefore, are not questioned but are accepted as they are. Doxa is, in other words, the collective habitus that becomes predominant in a given society and time, and that does not require reflection.
Continuing with the concept of doxa, Bourdieu considers it the thoughtless support of the actions of subjects living in society . Doxa can go through changes, the speed of which is closely linked to the type of society in which it is contextualized: in a conservative one it tends towards statism, while in a permeable one it will change easily.
Changes in doxa take place between two periods, but are linked to milestones, those events of a historical nature that mark society and can effectively alter its doxa, even in a negative way (among the most common examples are coups d'état , periods of repression and wars).