tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post115176567080348390..comments2024-03-28T19:14:33.619-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: What We "Believe"Eric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1153637823023099742006-07-22T23:57:00.000-07:002006-07-22T23:57:00.000-07:00Hi Eric,I'm skeptical that your implicit-explicit ...Hi Eric,<BR/><BR/>I'm skeptical that your implicit-explicit distinction can capture what you are after. You seem to be saying that explicit beliefs drive behavior whereas implicit beliefs don't (or do not to the same amount). But is this true? By characterizing your son's implicit beliefs you even mentioned connections to behavior yourself: "He'll probably endorse the views again in a few days if I remind him of our conversation. He'll draw obvious consequences from it, and argue against conflicting views."<BR/><BR/>Perhaps I would try to approach the matter by assuming different standards for belief-ascriptions (corresponding to what is at stake in a certain context) mirroring somewhat the contextualism-debate about "know". At least, this seems to be an alternative to treating "belief" as ambiguous in the way you propose.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1152302390113181262006-07-07T12:59:00.000-07:002006-07-07T12:59:00.000-07:00The picture is my "co-blogger". I am asisting with...The picture is my "co-blogger". <BR/>I am asisting with the typing since her fingers are still too short!Geniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11624496692217466430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1152283921485048282006-07-07T07:52:00.000-07:002006-07-07T07:52:00.000-07:00Genius, you must be older than you look in your pi...Genius, you must be older than you look in your picture!<BR/><BR/>I like your thought about free-floating "beliefs" being easier for young children. In adults, perhaps we have to get more abstract and disconnected (for example, metaphysical) for our beliefs to float free of our actions as easily as they do in children.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1152272887008833372006-07-07T04:48:00.000-07:002006-07-07T04:48:00.000-07:00Another thought provoking post!I think as we grow ...Another thought provoking post!<BR/><BR/>I think as we grow older we form more and more connections between ideas so it is easier for a child to have free floating concepts that are "believed" in a part of their mind.<BR/><BR/>Anyway somehow we tiptoe through all of this in our day to day lives and in our legal system. Declaring some people to "own" certain behaviors and other people and others behaviors to not be owned. And this has in a sense a real root in how deeply these behaviours or beliefs are intergrated into us. Whether the beliefs cause actions and if the behaviours ae caused by beliefs etc.Geniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11624496692217466430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1152128672479939012006-07-05T12:44:00.000-07:002006-07-05T12:44:00.000-07:00Brad, I agree with you completely. Yet I would al...Brad, I agree with you completely. Yet I would also emphasize -- I'm not saying you deny this -- that valuing from a "reflective point of view" and valuing "in the thrall" of a passion may be very difficult to distinguish from the inside. They may be phenomenologically identical. (Nomy Arpaly, whose book I just finished, is helpful on this point, I think.)<BR/><BR/>One interesting kind of case, which my student Ted Preston discussed at length in his dissertation, is the adulterous priest. Does he really believe adultery is wrong? Does he really value not committing adultery? In what senses? It hangs on the details, but in such cases a lot of things that we often think (in the rational case) travel together can splinter apart.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1152033918676967282006-07-04T10:25:00.000-07:002006-07-04T10:25:00.000-07:00Hi Eric,I think this issue is very important, part...Hi Eric,<BR/><BR/>I think this issue is very important, particularly for thinking about what we should aim to do when we teach philosophy. I find that it is easy (and hence tempting) to engage students in a discussion of their explicit beliefs and to avoid getting them to try to figure out what their implicit beliefs are. But, unless we do that, it is nearly impossible to submit their and our implicit beliefs to rational scrutiny or to change them through a process of rational reformation. <BR/><BR/>I (explicitly) believe there is an analogous distinction between believing to be valuable (or of value) and actually valuing. This case is complicated by the fact that there is a further difference between believing to be valuable from a reflective point of view and believing to be valuable while failing to think of all the relevant information or alternatives, perhaps because one is in the thrall of a passion like jealousy. Then again, maybe we should make a similar distinction between explict beliefs which we call "our considered opinions" and those which we do not.Brad Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12698027539432083841noreply@blogger.com