tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post5423636183735913722..comments2024-03-25T11:49:21.281-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: Thoughts, Judgments, and Beliefs -- What's the Difference?Eric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-57609603395956130222019-03-18T12:33:26.287-07:002019-03-18T12:33:26.287-07:00Thanks for the thoughtful comments, folks!
Howard...Thanks for the thoughtful comments, folks!<br /><br />Howard: Yes, your second comment is closer -- thought I also think that phenomenology and other cognitive features are relevant, as well as whether there are related excusing conditions. For example, do you feel genuinely guilty, kick yourself, is there some excusing condition like high stress? On my view, it is possible to be in an in-between state, if some of your dispositional profile goes one way and some goes the other.<br /><br />Chinaphil: Interesting! I like the idea about starting the idea without the intentional marker -- maybe the assertoricity can be indeterminate in some such cases. On the cat-is-on-the-mat type examples: One reason I prefer to avoid them is that starting with the simple case where everything aligns can lead to simplicistic views. To highlight how the judgment and belief might come apart, it's helpful to start with cases in which it's plausible that they might!<br /><br />Anon: I'm not seeing the problem yet. I can judge that If A, B, and if not-A, not B. I don't see anything contradictory there, nor need I commit to whether A. Is there something in my account that would prevent me from allowing that it's possible to judge and believe them both simultaneously?Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16274774112862434865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-4774403756990475792019-03-18T05:54:42.106-07:002019-03-18T05:54:42.106-07:00How about considering two contradictory conditiona...How about considering two contradictory conditionals, say, "if it rains I will take my umbrella with me" and "if it does not rain, I won't take my umbrella with me". They both influence my (future) action and to my current beliefs, but I don't pass judgement on either (say, I don't have the evidence pro or con yet). They both seem to qualify as judgements, but they contradict each other: but I don't seem to commit a contradiction if I assert both of them, since they are conditional statements. Still they seem to qualify as judgements on your account since they determine my beliefs and actions to a degree, perhaps even as beliefs.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-27689248452800377172019-03-11T10:32:16.983-07:002019-03-11T10:32:16.983-07:00So perhaps having a belief that one should do A me...So perhaps having a belief that one should do A means that under certain conditions one will do A, though by your analysis one does not quite believe A because of one's behavior. So believing A maans potentially A will be behavedhoward bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-42492735003825525432019-03-10T18:31:36.561-07:002019-03-10T18:31:36.561-07:00Your cheeky examples raise part of the problem - b...Your cheeky examples raise part of the problem - beliefs about the future and feelings and/or morality are inevitably going to raise more difficulties than physical "the cat is on the mat" style statements. <br />So I just want to chase the complexity back up the argumentative chain: At the end you suggest that assertions might be of indeterminate belief status, but perhaps that also means that their "assertoricity" is not as determinate as we originally thought.<br />Perhaps they were just bunches of ideas that could have crystallized into an intention, a belief, a question, a wish, or something else. <br />We could represent these ideas using infinitive forms in English, to avoid giving them an excessively assertoric or questioning or wishing form, if they really haven't yet taken on those features in the mind yet: "getting started on a blog post"; "it being OK to choose Irvine". As we decide how to feel about these things, we form them into actual propositions or intentions: "I should get started on a blog post," "I know that I ought to say it is OK to choose Irvine."<br />Incidentally, this is quite a common problem in translation: Chinese (especially Classical Chinese, but modern Mandarin, too) does this stripping away of intentional markers more easily than English, so it's a common device to present ideas and generate suspense by not providing the author's intentional stance immediately. chinaphilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14572591745611690731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-81905222453415984432019-03-10T17:26:55.022-07:002019-03-10T17:26:55.022-07:00I'm not sure I get your point: so, I say I wan...I'm not sure I get your point: so, I say I want to diet, but I don't, so I lack the belief I should diet.<br />However, I work with a cognitive therapist and after two months I successfully start losing weight- so now I believe that I should lose weight- but I'm really the same person, aren't I?<br />Howiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12474061778220524205noreply@blogger.com