Why believe in contentless beliefs?

Authors

Daniel D. Hutto, University of Hertfordshire

RIS ID

81162

Publication Details

Hutto, D. D. (2013). Why believe in contentless beliefs?. In N. Nottelmann (Eds.), New Essays on Belief: Constitution, Content and Structure (pp. 55-74). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Additional Publication Information

ISBN: 9781137026514

Abstract

This paper motivates the idea that the most basic kind of believing is a contentless attitude. It gives reasons for thinking that the most basic sort of belief – the sort that both we and other animals adopt toward situations – does not represent those situations in truth-evaluable ways. I call such attitudes pure intentional attitudes. They are not propositional attitudes, which I take to be linguistically mediated intentional attitudes.