One difference between electromagnetism and belief is that belief is supposedly accessed by introspection; not so much electromagnetism. — Banno
Why would you think that cause and effect are identical in one case, but not in the other? Or do you? — frank
What they have in common is that they are both known purely because of their effects. — frank
And it's true that Sap can believe that the key opens the front door, regardless of whether the key actually does.My belief that I can open my front door with my front door key does not consist in the actions of me opening my front door with my front door key. — Sapientia
Davidson. Can a belief be part of the cause of an act?
At the start of this thread I would have just said "yes", that in a straight forward way we use beliefs to explain actions, and that these are causal explanations.
Now I'm swinging away from that. — Banno
The claim I am critiquing is that a belief is known best by introspection. — Banno
Introspection is existentially dependent upon social constructs...
There is no such thing as introspection... aside from asking others about ourselves. — creativesoul
Your belief consists in your being able to lock the door, pocket the key, give the key to a friend, ponder how locks work...
...if not, then what exactly is your belief? — Banno
Your own beliefs should be available to you via introspection. — frank
There is no such thing as introspection... aside from asking others about ourselves. — creativesoul
Your own beliefs should be available to you via introspection. Aren't they? — frank
My belief consists in my being convinced that I can open my front door with my front door key. — Sapientia
Imagine a circle. There's no way to tell the points that make up the circle apart. They're each the same distance from the center.
But now we place an x-y axes over it and we can have endless fun talking about the distinct points.
Having laid the axes and had all the fun, we struggle to think of the circle without the axes. We're confronted with a lack of distinction, so nothing to talk about.
Inner and outer are like the axes. We lay them over experience and subsequently have endless fun talking about our place in the cosmos. Take away the distinction and speech immediately betrays us because the distinction is built in. — frank
Well, apparently not. Here we peel off into psychology. There are numerous experiments that show the falsity of our introspections. You have perhaps read of the infamous split-brain experiments.
Philosophically, beliefs do not have the solidity needed to ground explanations for our actions. — Banno
Do split brain experiments show falsity? Or conflict? Conflict is a good thing as long the corpus callosum is intact so as to allow reconciliation. — frank
They distinguished between mental contents (such as feelings) and mental processes, arguing that while introspection gives us access to contents, processes remain hidden.[8] — Wiki article
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