concept

beliefs

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Beliefs are central to epistemology, defined as subjective attitudes affirming or denying propositions expressible in declarative sentences epistemology defines beliefs as attitudes and representations of the universe stored in memory beliefs as stored representations. Analytic functionalism characterizes them through folk psychology platitudes on formation and loss analytic functionalism on mental states. Some theorists, including eliminative materialists, reject beliefs' existence as folk psychology oversimplifications eliminativists reject beliefs, while Alexander Rosenberg argues naturalism demands denying them alongside thoughts Rosenberg on naturalism rejecting beliefs. Alan Sanfey's research shows beliefs emerge from neural processes with explanatory autonomy Sanfey on neural beliefs. In Theory of Mind, beliefs are mental states used to predict behavior ToM based on beliefs. Epistemological debates cover justification as norms distinguishing well-founded beliefs from guesses justification for beliefs, internal-external sources internal-external debate, control and responsibility objection on belief control, and degrees as credences. Theories include reliabilism basing justification on reliable sources reliabilism on belief sources, foundationalism with basic beliefs modest foundationalism basics, coherentism allowing non-belief justification dependence coherentism rejects belief req, deontological (obligation-based) deontological justification defined, virtue epistemology assessing formation virtues virtue epistemology on belief formation, Bayesian using probabilities Bayesian beliefs as certainties, and pragmatist views as action-shaping habits pragmatist beliefs as habits. Warner and David Chalmers hold some experience beliefs incorrigible, challenging physicalism Chalmers-Warner on incorrigible beliefs. Fallibilism sees all best beliefs fallibly justified fallibilism on best beliefs, skeptics question justification skeptics on unjustified beliefs. Richerson, Christiansen (2013), and Tomasello (2014) cite beliefs among modern humans' cultural traits human cultural beliefs cited.

Model Perspectives (2)

openrouter/x-ai/grok-4.1-fast definitive 92% confidence

openrouter/x-ai/grok-4.1-fast 92% confidence

Beliefs are defined as mental states about what is the case beliefs defined as mental states. Epistemology examines how people should acquire beliefs and assesses their justification, rationality, and epistemic quality to determine if they constitute knowledge epistemology evaluates belief acquisition, contrasting with psychology and cognitive sociology, which describe the beliefs people actually hold and how they form them psychology describes actual beliefs. Traditional epistemologists sought to derive beliefs about the world from certain sensations for foundational certainty traditional derivation from sensations, but W.V.O. Quine argued such efforts failed Quine on failed grounding and advocated naturalized epistemology as a scientific study of how sensory stimulations produce beliefs Quine proposes naturalized epistemology. Naturalized approaches investigate actual cognitive processes of belief formation naturalized epistemology on formation, while views like epistemic conservatism prioritize revising pre-existing beliefs only for good reasons epistemic conservatism prioritizes beliefs and Charles Peirce urged openness to evidence-based revision Peirce on fallible beliefs. Coherentism treats beliefs as interconnected without strict foundations coherentism interconnects beliefs, evidentialists view other beliefs as evidence evidentialists on belief evidence, and Hilary Kornblith critiques traditionalists for merely ratifying existing beliefs Kornblith on ratifying beliefs. Beliefs from biases or desires lack knowledge status even if true beliefs from psychological factors, decision theory analyzes their strength under uncertainty decision theory on belief strength, and the epistemology of disagreement assesses rational responses to conflicting beliefs, as in Tom Kelly's 2005 essay epistemology of disagreement.

Facts (99)

Sources

Epistemology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 28 facts

claimMozi (470–391 BCE) proposed a pragmatic approach to knowledge using historical records, sensory evidence, and practical outcomes to validate beliefs.

claimRationality encompasses both a theoretical side, which covers beliefs, and a practical side, which covers decisions, intentions, and actions.

claimPsychology and cognitive sociology study the beliefs people actually have and how they acquire them, whereas epistemology examines the evaluative norms of these processes.

claimDecision theory and epistemology both investigate the foundations of rational thought and the role of beliefs, though decision theory focuses more on the practical side of how beliefs are translated into action.

claimInfinitism argues that beliefs form infinite justification chains, where each link of the chain supports the belief following it and is supported by the belief preceding it.

claimReason is responsible for inferential knowledge, where one or more beliefs serve as premises to support another belief.

claimBeliefs are defined as mental states about what is the case.

claimPsychology describes what beliefs people have and how they acquire them, whereas the focus of epistemology is on evaluating beliefs to judge whether they are justified and rational.

claimPragmatist epistemology conceptualizes beliefs as habits that shape actions rather than as representations that mirror the world.

claimBayesian epistemology represents beliefs as degrees of certainty and uses probability theory to formally define norms of rationality governing how certain people should be.

claimEpistemological debates regarding beliefs include their status as components of propositional knowledge, the question of whether people have control over and responsibility for their beliefs, and the issue of whether beliefs have degrees, called credences.

claimBeliefs are representations of the universe stored in memory and retrieved when actively thinking about reality or deciding how to act.

claimIn epistemology, beliefs are often understood as subjective attitudes that affirm or deny a proposition, which can be expressed in a declarative sentence.

claimDecision theorists distinguish between weaker and stronger beliefs to analyze the effects of uncertainty on decision-making.

claimCharles Peirce argued that all knowledge is fallible and that knowledge seekers should remain open to revising their beliefs in light of new evidence, using this to argue against Cartesian foundationalism.

claimEpistemologists use epistemic norms as criteria to assess the cognitive quality of beliefs, such as their justification and rationality.

claimEpistemic conservatism is a view about belief revision that prioritizes pre-existing beliefs, asserting that a person should only change their beliefs if they have a good reason to do so.

claimBeliefs are propositional attitudes that are true or false depending on whether they affirm a true or a false proposition.

perspectiveSome theorists deny the existence of beliefs, arguing that the concept is borrowed from folk psychology and oversimplifies complex psychological or neurological processes.

claimThe coherence theory of truth defines a belief as true if it belongs to a coherent system of beliefs, making truth relative to other beliefs.

claimEpistemology explores how people should acquire beliefs and evaluates which beliefs or forms of belief acquisition meet the standards or epistemic goals of knowledge.

claimEpistemologists distinguish between deontic norms, which prescribe what people should believe, and axiological norms, which identify the goals and values of beliefs.

claimIn epistemology, justification is defined as a property of beliefs that adhere to specific norms regarding what a person should believe.

claimInternalism asserts that justification depends only on factors within the individual, such as perceptual experience, memories, and other beliefs.

claimEpistemology is closely related to psychology, which infers the beliefs people hold from their words and actions, while epistemology studies the norms governing the evaluation of beliefs.

claimJustification serves to distinguish well-founded beliefs from superstition and lucky guesses.

claimEvidentialists suggest that memories, intuitions, and other beliefs are valid forms of evidence.

perspectiveSome epistemological theories define beliefs as behavioral patterns or dispositions to act rather than as representational items stored in the mind.

Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Matthias Steup, Ram Neta · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Dec 14, 2005 17 facts

claimIn virtue epistemology, epistemic virtues are defined as 'good' ways of forming beliefs, such as careful and attentive reasoning, while epistemic vices are defined as 'bad' ways of forming beliefs, such as jumping to conclusions.

claimExternalist virtue epistemology defines epistemic virtues as stable ways of forming beliefs that tend to result in true beliefs, and epistemic vices as stable ways of forming beliefs that tend to result in false beliefs.

claimVirtue epistemology proposes that the order of analysis in epistemology should be reversed, starting with the assessment of the subject's epistemic virtues and vices rather than focusing primarily on the epistemic quality of individual beliefs.

formulaDeontological Justification (DJ) for beliefs is defined as: A subject S is justified in believing that p if and only if S believes that p while it is not the case that S is obliged to refrain from believing that p.

claimTraditional epistemology focuses on assessing the epistemic quality of a subject's beliefs to determine if they are justified or instances of knowledge.

claimThe first objection to deontological justification (DJ) argues that it presupposes humans have a high degree of control over beliefs, whereas beliefs are involuntary processes similar to digestion or blinking.

formulaNon-Deontological Justification (NDJ) is defined as: A subject S is justified in believing a proposition p if and only if S believes p on a basis that properly probabilifies S's belief that p.

claimBeliefs can arise from psychological factors such as desires, emotional needs, prejudice, and biases, but beliefs originating from these sources do not qualify as knowledge even if they are true.

claimWhen evaluating the justification of beliefs, the relevant obligations are those that arise from the pursuit of truth, rather than moral or prudential obligations used to evaluate actions.

perspectiveAdvocates of deontological justification (DJ) argue that a lack of control over beliefs does not prevent the use of the term 'justification' in a deontological sense.

claimCritics of deontological justification (DJ) argue that beliefs formed through unreliable methods cannot qualify as knowledge, even if they are true, which leads to the rejection of DJ.

claimReliabilists reject access internalism because they argue that if the justification of beliefs is determined by the reliability of belief sources, justification is not always recognizable upon reflection.

perspectiveSome philosophers argue that it is a mistake to believe that humans have less control over their beliefs than they do over their actions.

claimDependence coherentism rejects the requirement that justification must come in the form of beliefs, allowing instead for justification to come from introspective and memorial evidence, or from suitable perceptual experiences and memory content.

claimA priori knowledge consists of beliefs that are true, justified a priori, and not 'gettiered'.

claimReliabilism asserts that the justification of beliefs is a function of the reliability of belief sources, such as memorial, perceptual, and introspective states and processes, rather than evidence.

claimThe debate between dependence coherentism and independence foundationalism centers on which theory provides a more satisfying answer to the J-question regarding why perceptual experiences justify beliefs.

Naturalized Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Jul 5, 2001 15 facts

claimTraditional epistemologists often assume that evidence for beliefs about the mental states of others consists primarily of observations of their behavior, then question whether that evidence is sufficient to justify those beliefs.

claimJaegwon Kim argues that Willard Van Orman Quine's naturalized epistemology studies a different topic than traditional epistemology, specifically shifting focus from questions of rationality, justification, and knowledge to the causal connections between sensory evidence and beliefs.

accountTraditional epistemologists attempted to derive statements about the world from statements about sensations to show that science has an adequate foundation, operating on the premise that if beliefs about the world could be derived from certain beliefs about sensations, then the derived truths about the world would also be certain.

claimMany epistemologists investigate accounts of the epistemic support relation that allow for beliefs to be well-supported by sensory evidence even if they are not strictly derivable from that evidence.

claimEvidentialists are committed to the existence of epistemic facts regarding which beliefs are supported by a particular body of evidence.

claimCognitive science could potentially discover that beliefs previously thought to constitute knowledge actually result from unreliable or deviant causal chains, thereby overturning judgments about whether people have knowledge in those cases.

claimArguments for skepticism often rely on the premise that evidence supports beliefs only if those beliefs are strictly deducible from that evidence.

claimW.V.O. Quine argues that efforts to ground beliefs about the world by deriving them from sensations have failed because the proposed derivations do not work.

claimHilary Kornblith defends a view close to Quinean Replacement Naturalism, arguing that traditional epistemologists who abandon the Cartesian program of deriving beliefs from certain foundations end up endorsing principles that merely ratify their pre-existing beliefs.

claimThe supervenience thesis regarding epistemic status asserts that if two believers share all the same natural properties, then the same beliefs are justified for them.

claimTraditional epistemology focuses on questions of rationality, justification, and whether an epistemic support relation holds between basic evidence and beliefs about the world.

claimDetailed scientific information is necessary to obtain a clear picture of actual human cognitive practices and to assess the merits of beliefs by understanding the errors and mistakes people are prone to make.

claimSkeptical arguments considered by traditional epistemologists typically rely on premises that specify a necessary condition for knowledge and premises that assert people's beliefs fail to satisfy that condition.

claimNaturalists generally accept the concept of 'evidence possessed' as naturalistic, viewing it as a combination of a person's current experiences, memories, and existing beliefs.

claimWillard Van Orman Quine proposed that epistemology should be treated as a chapter of psychology and natural science, focusing on the psychological processes that transform sensory stimulations into beliefs about the world.

Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness - David Chalmers consc.net Journal of Consciousness Studies 4 facts

claimWarner argues that because some beliefs about conscious experience are incorrigible, experience cannot be physically explained, as physical science cannot account for the necessary connections required by incorrigibility.

claimDavid Chalmers and Warner agree that there exists a limited class of beliefs about conscious experience that cannot be wrong.

claimWarner argues that while many beliefs about experiences are mistaken, beliefs about experiences are incorrigible when the ability to recognize those experiences is "unimpaired."

referenceIn his book, David Chalmers presents a neutral line on intentionality, noting that there is a 'deflationary' construal where even a zombie could have beliefs, and an 'inflationary' construal where true belief requires consciousness.

What Is Epistemology? Pt. 3: The Nature of Justification and Belief philosimplicity.com Philosimplicity Oct 23, 2017 4 facts

claimFallibilism does not assert that beliefs are wrong or that true knowledge is impossible, but rather that absolute certainty regarding the nature of justifications in relation to the knowledge they provide is unattainable.

claimThe Internal-External (IE) debate is a major contemporary debate in epistemology concerning whether justification for beliefs comes from internal mental states or external conditions.

claimFallibilism is the epistemological position that all of our best beliefs are only fallibly justified, meaning there is always room for reasonable doubt regarding the validity of the justifications provided for those beliefs.

claimInternalists in epistemology only accept internal justifications for beliefs.

Epistemology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 4 facts

perspectiveDavid Hume questions whether beliefs about the future and the unobserved, which rely on the assumption that the future will be like the past, are justified.

claimThe Cartesian skepticism argument asserts that because there are no signs to distinguish between accurate beliefs and those caused by an evil demon, all beliefs are unjustified, leading to the conclusion that we cannot know anything.

referenceJohn Pollock and Joseph Cruz defend non-doxastic foundationalism in their 1999 book 'Contemporary Theories of Knowledge (2nd ed.)', where basic states are defined as percepts rather than beliefs.

claimSkeptics may argue that beliefs are either not true or not justified, with the argument that beliefs are not justified being more common than the argument that they are not true.

Virtue epistemology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 3 facts

claimVirtue epistemology evaluates knowledge based on the properties of the persons or knowers who hold beliefs, rather than focusing solely on the properties of propositions and beliefs.

claimErnest Sosa posits that more virtuous faculties are related to direct sensory perception and memory, while less virtuous capacities relate to beliefs derived from primary memory or sense experience.

claimCoherentism is an epistemological theory that uses the metaphor of a raft, where all beliefs are interconnected due to logical relationships rather than being tied down by foundations.

AI Sessions #9: The Case Against AI Consciousness (with Anil Seth) conspicuouscognition.com Conspicuous Cognition Feb 17, 2026 3 facts

perspectiveRelying on folk-psychological criteria for consciousness is susceptible to false positives because many systems can appear to have beliefs and goals without actually possessing consciousness.

perspectiveAn analytic functionalist might argue that AI systems can be conscious if they adhere closely to the platitudes of everyday folk psychology, such as forming goals, beliefs, and aspirations, even if the underlying processes of brains and AI systems differ.

claimAnalytic functionalism defines mental states based on everyday folk psychology, characterizing them through common understanding of how people form, hold, and lose mental states like beliefs.

Social Epistemology – Introduction to Philosophy - Rebus Press press.rebus.community William D. Rowley · Rebus Community 2 facts

perspectiveHuman beings do not form beliefs in a vacuum, as they are epistemically interconnected with other minds.

claimThe epistemology of disagreement focuses on determining the epistemically rational response to discovering that another person disagrees with one's own beliefs.

What Role Does Language Play in Self-Identity? → Question lifestyle.sustainability-directory.com Sustainability Directory Mar 24, 2025 2 facts

claimLanguage is used to articulate thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, which shapes an individual's inner world and communicates it to others.

claimLanguages, dialects, and slang carry cultural values, beliefs, and specific ways of viewing the world.

Dualism, Physicalism, and Philosophy of Mind - Capturing Christianity capturingchristianity.com Capturing Christianity Dec 11, 2019 2 facts

claimMany eliminative materialists reject the existence of beliefs, which creates a logical difficulty regarding how to state their philosophical view.

claimAlexander Rosenberg argues that naturalism requires rejecting the existence of right and wrong, beliefs, wants, thoughts, hopes, fears, expectations, purposive action, and linguistic meaning.

Naturalized epistemology and cognitive science | Intro to... - Fiveable fiveable.me Fiveable 2 facts

claimNaturalized epistemology utilizes scientific methods to investigate how humans learn and form beliefs.

claimNaturalized epistemology examines the processes by which organisms actually acquire knowledge and form beliefs.

Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Jul 13, 2017 2 facts

quoteHilary Kornblith argues regarding responsiveness to reason: "While such responsiveness may be achieved, at times, by way of reflection on one’s beliefs and desires, it does not require any such reflection."

claimSydney Shoemaker (1994) argues against the possibility of 'self-blindness,' which is the idea that a rational creature with necessary concepts could be unaware of its own sensations or beliefs.

Social Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Feb 26, 2001 1 fact

referenceP. Mongin's 2008 article 'Factoring Out the Impossibility of Logical Aggregation,' published in the 'Journal of Economic Theory,' addresses the logical challenges of aggregating individual preferences or beliefs.

Non-Reductive Physicalism - Theories of Consciousness theoriesofconsciousness.com Theories of Consciousness 1 fact

claimAlan Sanfey's research on decision-making demonstrates that psychological constructs such as preferences and beliefs emerge from neural processes while maintaining explanatory autonomy.

Self-Consciousness - Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science oecs.mit.edu MIT Press Jul 24, 2024 1 fact

claimTheory of Mind (ToM) is based on mental states such as beliefs, desires, hopes, and fears, and posits that humans understand and predict the behavior of other social beings by attributing these mental states to them and utilizing implicit knowledge of how these states interact to generate behavior.

Epistemic Justification – Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology press.rebus.community Todd R. Long · Rebus Community 1 fact

claimModest foundationalists define psychologically basic beliefs as those that are not inferred from other beliefs a person holds.

The Role of Language in Shaping Social Identity and Cultural ... aithor.com Aithor Apr 24, 2025 1 fact

claimMore cultural knowledge is tied to language than to any other factor, including religion, social organization, economic organization, kin terminology, dress, values, norms, and beliefs.

Naturalistic Epistemology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1 fact

claimEpistemic justification is considered a positive property of beliefs because justified beliefs originate from reliable processes that promote the goal of believing what is true rather than what is false.

Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Dec 14, 2005 1 fact

referenceTom Kelly's 2005 essay 'The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement' discusses how disagreement between individuals affects the rationality of their beliefs.

https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitst... api.drum.lib.umd.edu Natasha J. Cabrera · Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland 1 fact

claimCulture is defined as a constellation of beliefs, norms, and behaviors that drive cultural variation in parenting behaviors both within and between cultural groups.

Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org Frontiers 1 fact

claimModern humans possess complex languages, sophisticated technology, intricate stores of cultural knowledge and beliefs, and an advanced theory of mind, as cited by Richerson and Christiansen (2013) and Tomasello (2014).

7.1 What Epistemology Studies - Introduction to Philosophy | OpenStax openstax.org OpenStax Jun 15, 2022 1 fact

claimPhilosophers who argue that knowledge of the external world is impossible base their position on the idea that individuals can never be certain of the truth of their beliefs about the external world.

Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Howard Robinson · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Aug 19, 2003 1 fact

claimMental properties, which include consciousness (such as perceptual and emotional experience) and intentionality (such as beliefs and desires), are private to the subject and involve a form of privileged access that no one else has to the physical.