Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Personal identity and individuation
- 2 Bodily continuity and personal identity
- 3 Imagination and the self
- 4 The self and the future
- 5 Are persons bodies?
- 6 The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality
- 7 Strawson on individuals
- 8 Knowledge and meaning in the philosophy of mind
- 9 Deciding to believe
- 10 Imperative inference
- 11 Ethical consistency
- 12 Consistency and realism
- 13 Morality and the emotions
- 14 The idea of equality
- 15 Egoism and altruism
- Bibliography
- Index of names
9 - Deciding to believe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Personal identity and individuation
- 2 Bodily continuity and personal identity
- 3 Imagination and the self
- 4 The self and the future
- 5 Are persons bodies?
- 6 The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality
- 7 Strawson on individuals
- 8 Knowledge and meaning in the philosophy of mind
- 9 Deciding to believe
- 10 Imperative inference
- 11 Ethical consistency
- 12 Consistency and realism
- 13 Morality and the emotions
- 14 The idea of equality
- 15 Egoism and altruism
- Bibliography
- Index of names
Summary
When the subject of belief is proposed for philosophical discussion, one may tend to think of such things as religious and moral beliefs, belief in the sense of conviction of an ideological or practical character. Indeed, many of the most interesting questions in the philosophy of belief are concerned with beliefs of this type. However, this is not in fact what I shall be talking about, though what I say will, I hope, have some relevance to issues that arise in those areas. I wish to start with the question of what it is to believe something, and then go on from that to discuss (rather briefly) how far, if at all, believing something can be related to decision and will. In order to discuss this, I am not going to take religious and moral beliefs, but cases of more straightforward factual belief; the sort of belief one has when one just believes that it is raining, or believes that somebody over there is one's father, or believes that the substance in front of one is salt.
I shall be talking about belief as a psychological state. The word ‘belief’, of course, can stand equally for the state of somebody who believes something, and for what he believes. And we can talk about beliefs in an impersonal way, when we talk about certain propositions which people believe or might believe.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Problems of the SelfPhilosophical Papers 1956–1972, pp. 136 - 151Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1973
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