Mental atoms, eh?
Are all thoughts beliefs, or do all thoughts entail (some) belief(s)?
Are ll beliefs thoughts, or do all beliefs entail (some) thoughts(s)?
Does all thinking consist in/of thoughts? Does all believing consist in/of beliefs? — Janus
"The fluid was in a turbulent state". — Janus
So which one of you is going to offer a sensible and coherent explanation of how Jack is capable of believing, if he cannot form and hold belief, has no language, has no ability to think in statements, and all belief has linguistic content? — creativesoul
If an explanation has logical problems it is likely wrong, but it doesn't require an alternative explanation to demonstrate this. In other words, we can dismiss a belief concerning a certain phenomenon, as unacceptable, without necessarily producing an acceptable one. — Metaphysician Undercover
Witt talked about belief being shown via behaviour. Banno, Sam, and others have also talked in such terms as well as directly attributing belief statements to Jack and saying that Jack believes. — creativesoul
Are you charging my explanations here with having logical problems? — creativesoul
A state of turbulence is a state of change. — Janus
I am saying that there are logical problems involved with not producing a clear and precise definition of "belief", which distinguishes behaviour which demonstrates a belief, from behaviour which does not. Otherwise, it may be argued that any behaviour which demonstrates consistency demonstrates belief. — Metaphysician Undercover
Yep. They don’t act on a belief. Their actions simply show they believe. Where we - linguistically, hence metacognitively - can also speak of the belief upon which we might, or might not, act. — apokrisis
I'm talking about not only Jack's behaviour(the evidence) but also Jack's mental ongoings... Banno rejects all things mental(I think). — creativesoul
Surely by now you've seen my definition for "belief", "thought", and any/all other terms referring to mental ongoings? It is as precise as they come and has the broadest possible scope of application. There are no exceptions.
You're working from the presupposition that behaviour alone is adequate for establishing belief demonstration...
It's not.
There's a bit of critical thinking involved as well, particularly when the beasties in question do not or cannot tell us what's going on 'in their heads'... — creativesoul
It seems that it is the human ability to think symbolically that allows for "holding beliefs"; where holding a belief is conceived of as being in an unchanging state of assent towards an absolutely fixed content. — Janus
If people are conceived of as being able to hold beliefs in this kind of static sense, it would seem that they routinely do it without 'thinking about thinking', though, and that is why I said it has nothing to do, necessarily, with metacognition. — Janus
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