There are two kinds of belief. Linguistic and non linguistic. — creativesoul
There are two kinds of belief. Linguistic and non linguistic.
— creativesoul
What exactly distinguishes one from the other? — Banno
All belief consists entirely of mental correlations drawn between different things. — creativesoul
All belief consists entirely of mental correlations drawn between different things.
— creativesoul
Ah. The Dogma. — Banno
...this perhaps leaves open that what is taken to be the case might be some correlation between different things.. — Banno
...this perhaps leaves open that what is taken to be the case might be some mental correlation between different things.. — Banno
Instead of talk of belief, let's talk about what is taken to be the case, and to do so without further definition except as may come in the discussion that follows.
So I take it to be the case that this is a sentence of English in a thread about Wittgenstein. I take it to be the case that I am typing this post, and presumably you might take it to be the case that you are reading this post.
So one observation we might make is that taking something to be the case is a relation between some state of affairs and some individual, or if you prefer, some agent. — Banno
My cat takes it to be the case that the floor is solid. He does not, for example, tentatively test the floor with his paw to check for solidity before walking on it. He takes it to be the case that the floor is solid, despite his not being able to articulate this in English. — Banno
Now what one takes to be the case is what one believes.
And hence, what one believes can be stated. — Banno
I'm just disincline to think that must be some neural network that corresponds to each and every possible belief, stated or unstated. — Banno
what you said was that "a belief can be a particular neural network", which might be more indicative of the development of a technical sense of "belief" in neuroscience. — Banno
I am not making the claim that some particular neural network could not also be described in terms of some belief. — Banno
there is no neural net corresponding to the belief that the floor is solid — Banno
Therefore, beliefs are not pre-linguistic or non-linguistic. Unless a belief is something else? — Luke
But isn't this just begging the question? If a belief is "an attitude to the world (or a mental state if you like) when rendered as a statement." then it obviously follows that it must be linguistic, but this is no more than to say "if a belief is linguistic, then it is linguistic — Isaac
As I asked, if that's not a belief then what is? — Luke
So you agree that it is a linguistic rendering of an attitude or mental state? — Luke
The problem I have with restricting the term to statements is it just leaves us wanting of a term for 'that which causes a tendency to act as if something were the case' when it is not rendered as a statement. — Isaac
It wasn't so much that we talk about beliefs in terms other than linguistic renderings, just that we don't, in other areas, infer this to mean that they consist of linguistic renderings. — Isaac
No, but the statement of a belief is not what causes the tendency to act either, is it? — Isaac
You seem to be saying that beliefs are necessarily a different kind of thing where the fact that we have to render them into statements carries some additional burden not applicable to physical laws or features. It's this step that I'm not understanding. — Isaac
Maybe something got lost along the way. I agree with jamalrob's statement that a belief is the linguistic rendering of an attitude or a mental state. — Luke
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