3159
|
Beliefs and desires aren't real; they are prediction techniques [Dennett]
|
|
Full Idea:
Intentional systems don't really have beliefs and desires, but one can explain and predict their behaviour by ascribing beliefs and desires to them. This strategy is pragmatic, not right or wrong.
|
|
From:
Daniel C. Dennett (Brainstorms:Essays on Mind and Psychology [1978], p.7?)
|
|
A reaction:
If the ascription of beliefs and desires explains behaviour, then that is good grounds for thinking they might be real features of the brain, and even if that is not so, they are real enough as abstractions from brain events, like the 'economic climate'.
|
22306
|
To explain false belief we should take belief as relating to a proposition's parts, not to the whole thing [Russell]
|
|
Full Idea:
To explain belief in what is false we shall have to regard what is called belief in a proposition as not a thought related to the proposition, but rather as a thought related to the constituents of the proposition.
|
|
From:
Bertrand Russell (Papers of 1906 [1906], V.321), quoted by Michael Potter - The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930 40 '1906'
|
|
A reaction:
Russell proposed a new theory of judgement, in order to explain erroneous judgements, given that true propositions are identical with facts. Of course there might be errors about the constituents, as well as about their structure. Othello is his example.
|