more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 5780

[catalogued under 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 Reference

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]