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margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #47374a; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#47374a"><b>Thinking hardly<br />or hardly thinking?</b><br /><a href="/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Philosophy</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#f8feff;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Philosophy" title="Category:Philosophy"><img alt="Icon philosophy.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/d/d0/Icon_philosophy.svg/100px-Icon_philosophy.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/d/d0/Icon_philosophy.svg/150px-Icon_philosophy.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/d/d0/Icon_philosophy.svg/200px-Icon_philosophy.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#47374a; text-align:center;"><b>Major trains of thought</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#f8feff;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Logic" title="Logic">Logic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Morality" title="Morality">Morality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reality" title="Reality">Reality</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#47374a; text-align:center;"><b>The good, the bad,<br />and the brain fart</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#f8feff;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Empiricism" title="Empiricism">Empiricism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Determinism" title="Determinism">Determinism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethical_egoism" title="Ethical egoism">Ethical egoism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Presentism" title="Presentism">Presentism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Human_exceptionalism" title="Human exceptionalism">Human exceptionalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Confucius" title="Confucius">Confucius</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Godwin" title="William Godwin">William Godwin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberalism" title="Liberalism">Liberalism</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#47374a; text-align:center;"><b>Come to think of it</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#f8feff;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">Religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">Science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_science" title="Philosophy of science">Philosophy of science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethics" class="mw-redirect" title="Ethics">Ethics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">Psychology</a></li></ul> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Philosophy" title="Template:Philosophy">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Philosophy" title="Template talk:Philosophy">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Philosophy&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 70px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:80px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:80px">”</span>Therefore, the word "belief" can for this majority not mean "perceiving the truth of something" but can only be understood as "taking this as the basis for life." One can easily understand that this second kind of belief is much firmer, is much more fixed than the first one, that <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance" title="Cognitive dissonance">it can persist even against immediate contradicting experience</a> and can therefore not be shaken by added <a href="/wiki/Knowledge#Scientific_knowledge" title="Knowledge">scientific knowledge</a>. The <a href="/wiki/History" title="History">history</a> of <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">the past two decades</a> has shown by many examples that this second kind of belief can sometimes be upheld to a point where it seems completely absurd, and that it then ends only with the <a href="/wiki/Death" title="Death">death</a> of the believer. <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">Science</a> and history can teach us that this kind of belief may become a great danger for those who share it.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Werner Heisenberg<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Belief</b> is an <a href="/wiki/Equivocation" title="Equivocation">equivocal term</a> referring to (usually willing) acceptance of an idea.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[note 1]</a></sup> </p><p>Belief comes in various flavors: </p> <ul><li>Synonymous with "favorable view", as in "I don't believe in winding electrical cords too tightly."</li> <li>Result of "seeing is believing", e.g. where someone believes in regular sunrises.</li> <li>Assessment of likelihood: "I believe you can understand this."</li> <li>Trust of another person: "I believe you did put my check in the mail."</li> <li>From a deep place within: "I believe my <a href="/wiki/Spirit_guide" title="Spirit guide">spirit guide</a> is telling me to lay healing hands on your boo-boo."</li> <li>Utter staring <a href="/wiki/Delusion" title="Delusion">delusion</a>: "I believe I am being told to <a href="/wiki/Cleanse" title="Cleanse">cleanse</a> the world of <a href="/wiki/Evil" class="mw-redirect" title="Evil">evil</a>."</li> <li>Pragmatic self-interest: "Well, a man’s got to believe something, and I believe I’ll have another <a href="/wiki/Alcohol" title="Alcohol">drink</a>."<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[2]</a></sup></li></ul> <div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#In_philosophy"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">In philosophy</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#In_psychology_and_other_social_sciences"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">In psychology and other social sciences</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="In_philosophy">In philosophy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Belief&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: In philosophy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Philosophy often contrasts belief with <a href="/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge">knowledge</a>. Philosophers usually define belief as the acceptance of a propositional statement<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[3]</a></sup> or of a propositional attitude. Knowledge is defined — in terms of belief — as "justified true belief", per <a href="/wiki/Plato" title="Plato">Plato</a>. (Figuring out just what "justified true belief" entails is a whole 'nother can of worms.) However, various models attempt to explain how belief operates: </p> <ul><li>Representationalism: Beliefs are stored as (or as something akin to) propositional statements in memory.</li> <li>Dispositionalism: Beliefs are the equivalent of having behavioral dispositions that correlate with holding some propositional statement to be true. Comparisons to theories of <a href="/wiki/Behaviorism" title="Behaviorism">behaviorism</a> are often drawn here.</li> <li>Interpretationism: Similar to dispositionalism, but the belief is not necessarily interpreted as something interior to the person or to the agent itself. A classic example of interpretationism is <a href="/wiki/Daniel_Dennett" title="Daniel Dennett">Daniel Dennett</a>'s concept of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intentional_stance" class="extiw" title="wp:intentional stance" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: intentional stance">intentional stance</span></a>,<sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> in which an agent's beliefs are projected onto it through an interpretation of its actions.</li> <li>Eliminativism: "Belief" is too mushy of a concept to be useful and should be thrown out. This position is usually associated with the broader position in <a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind" class="mw-redirect" title="Philosophy of mind">philosophy of mind</a> known as <a href="/wiki/Eliminative_materialism" title="Eliminative materialism">eliminative materialism</a>, which takes the position that all the concepts of <a href="/wiki/Folk_science#Folk_psychology" title="Folk science">folk psychology</a> are inadequate for a <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">scientific</a> examination of the mind.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[4]</a></sup></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="In_psychology_and_other_social_sciences">In psychology and other social sciences</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Belief&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: In psychology and other social sciences">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>The slipperiness of the term "belief" has led to a number of technical distinctions in the <a href="/wiki/Social_science" title="Social science">social sciences</a> (although some, i.e. the aforementioned eliminativists, would prefer to do away with the concept entirely). A number of distinctions and definitions have been proposed by various <a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychologists</a>, <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_science" title="Cognitive science">cognitive scientists</a>, <a href="/wiki/Anthropology" title="Anthropology">anthropologists</a>, and philosophers. A few of them include: </p> <ul><li>Daniel Gilbert's argument that to understand a concept, one must first truly believe in it. Everything that is understood is believed in some sense, and only later discarded or disbelieved.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6">[5]</a></sup></li> <li>Dan Sperber's distinction between intuitive and reflective beliefs, where the former is a basic type of belief that is not propositional and the latter is akin to a representationalist model of belief. Sperber also includes the concepts of "half-understood" and "semi-propositional" beliefs in his system.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7">[6]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8">[7]</a></sup></li> <li>There is also the problem of explaining the divergence between behavior and professed belief (often called "<a href="/wiki/Hypocrisy" title="Hypocrisy">hypocrisy</a>" in common parlance). Eric Schwitzgebel calls these "in-between cases of belief."<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9">[8]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek" title="Slavoj Žižek">Slavoj Žižek</a>, in reference to ideology, makes a distinction between two types of manifestations of ideological belief. He first cites a classic conception of ideology as defined by <a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>: "[T]hey do not know it, but they are doing it." (Cf. <a href="/wiki/False_consciousness" title="False consciousness">false consciousness</a>.) He distinguishes this from a definition given by Peter Sloterdijk in which an ideological belief is held and acted on in a cynical fashion: "[T]hey know very well what they are doing, but still, they are doing it."<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10">[9]</a></sup></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Belief&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Belief_in_belief" title="Belief in belief">Belief in belief</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faith" title="Faith">Faith</a></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Belief&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"> This definition of the hi-falutin concept of "belief" could serve almost equally well as a definition of "<a href="/wiki/Intuition" title="Intuition">intuition</a>" or of a common-or-garden "hunch". Compare: "'What is a "hunch"?'<br /> 'Eh? It's a belief that something is so, or isn't so, without evidence.'" Robert A Heinlein: <i>The Puppet Masters</i> Caezik (1951) 2003, Rockville, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-64710-046-9. Page 187.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Belief&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-column-count:2; column-count:2; font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science</i> by Werner Heisenberg, p. 204 (1958).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/everyone_should_believe_in_something_i_believe_ill_have_another_drink">Peter de Vries</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-4">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition" class="extiw" title="wp:Proposition" rel="nofollow">Proposition</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-5">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See the <i>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</i> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/">entry on belief</a> for further detail.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-6">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Daniel T. Gilbert. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/Gillbert%20(How%20Mental%20Systems%20Believe).PDF">How Mental Systems Believe.</a> <i>American Psychologist</i>, vol. 46, no. 2, Feb. 1991</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-7">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Dan Sperber. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://cogprints.org/402/1/beliefs.htm">Intuitive and Reflective Beliefs.</a> Mind and Language 12 (1) (1997). pp. 67-83</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-8">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Dan Sperber. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dan.sperber.fr/wp-content/uploads/CulturallyTransmittedMisbeliefs">Culturally Transmitted Misbeliefs.</a> <i>Behavioral and Brain Sciences</i> (2009) 32, 534-535</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-9">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Eric Schwitzgebel. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/ActBel.pdf">Acting Contrary to Our Professed Beliefs, or the Gulf Between Occurrent Judgment and Dispositional Belief.</a> <i>Pacific Philosophical Quarterly</i> 91 (2010) 531–553</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-10">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Slavoj Žižek. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/slavoj-zizek/articles/cynicism-as-a-form-of-ideology/">Cynicism as a Form of Ideology.</a> Excerpt from <i>The Sublime Object of Ideology</i>, pp. 28-30</span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Belief&oldid=2639462">https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Belief&oldid=2639462</a>"</div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" 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