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jimrandomh comments on Foma: Beliefs that Cause Themselves to be True - Less Wrong
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This seems closely related to performative sentences, which are sentences whose utterance causes them to become true, and which are usually marked with "hereby".
For example:
"I name this ship the Nausicaa"
"I now pronounce you husband and wife"
"Well, I say!"
Well, 'foma' as this article and Vonnegut use it, is about things where believing in them has some useful effect, even if they are not true in themselves (yet, or ever). I guess society is based on a lot of such things -- e.g. warrior-ethos in the olden days.