[lit-ideas] Re: New Program in Psychoanalysis and Culture


--- On Wed, 23/7/08, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Yet is there such a thing as "belief" without the
> content of the belief?
 
Suggestion: we cannot specify a belief without specifying its content and so, 
if we are asked to specify a belief without its content, it is hard to do so. 
But a specific belief with given content is not merely that propositional 
content but also the attitude we have to that propositional content. And we can 
arguably have such attitudes to things that, at least in our conscious mind, 
fall short of having any or sufficient specific content. 

We can have vague feelings and a belief they will guide us true if we act on 
them. We can have blind faith. And in a fire I may know what to grab (say, the 
children - provided by Mozart The Complete Series Box Set is already safe) 
without doing so with a belief-state that in W2 consciousness has a specific 
content.

Btw, I wrote this without such a W2 specific content. Can't you tell?

Donal
'I do not believe in belief' EM Forster


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