BELIEF
(true and false, justified
and not justified, occurrent & standing, implicit occurrent and explicit
occurrent; motivators and guides of action)
Two
accounts:
1.
Beliefs are dispositions
to behave in a certain manner.
2.
Beliefs
are a type of epistemic state defined by having a certain kind of object.
On the
state-object account, what is the object?
B.
sentences
i.
sentence
tokens
ii.
sentence
types
C.
thoughts
(mental propositions)
i.
mental-proposition tokens
ii.
mental-proposition types
Important
considerations and arguments
vis-à-vis these accounts:
Against
the dispositional view:
1.
Leaves out the
explanatory role of beliefs vis-à-vis behavior.
2.
What are abstract
beliefs, e.g., “2 + 2 = 4”?
3.
How can two people have
the same belief?
Against
the propositional-object view?
1.
How can two people have
the same belief?
2.
What sort of entity is a
proposition?
Against
the sentential-object view?
1.
How can two people have
the same belief?
2.
What is a sentence type?
Against
the mental-proposition view:ditto
with appropriate variations.