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Single Idea 5780

[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / b. Elements of beliefs ]

Full Idea

There are three issues about belief: 1) the content which is believed, 2) the relation of the content to its 'objective' - the fact which makes it true or false, and 3) the element which is belief, as opposed to consideration or doubt or desire.

Gist of Idea

The three questions about belief are its contents, its success, and its character

Source

Bertrand Russell (On Propositions: What they are, and Meaning [1919], §III)

Book Ref

Russell,Bertrand: 'Logic and Knowledge', ed/tr. Marsh,Robert Charles [Routledge 1956], p.304


A Reaction

The correct answers to the questions (trust me) are that propositions are the contents, the relation aimed at is truth, which is a 'metaphysical ideal' of correspondence to facts, and belief itself is an indefinable feeling. See Hume, Idea 2208.

Related Idea

Idea 2208 Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects [Hume]


The 10 ideas with the same theme [the components that make up beliefs]:

Two sorts of opinion: either poorly grounded belief, or weak belief [Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
Belief can't be a concept plus an idea, or we could add the idea to fictions [Hume]
Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects [Hume]
We are aware of beliefs, they appease our doubts, and they are rules of action, or habits [Peirce]
The three questions about belief are its contents, its success, and its character [Russell]
Belief relates a mind to several things other than itself [Russell]
The concepts of belief and truth are linked, since beliefs are meant to fit reality [Davidson]
Indexicals are a problem for beliefs being just subject-proposition relations [Perry]
Beliefs are states of the head that explain behaviour, and also items with referential truth-conditions [McGinn]
Having beliefs involves recognition, expectation and surprise [Scruton]