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Unknowns comments on Is Belief in Belief a Useful Concept? - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: Unknowns 07 April 2015 05:15AM

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Comment author: Unknowns 07 April 2015 05:50:58PM 1 point [-]

I'm not sure you understand my point about choosing to believe something. The point is that there are many elements of your behavior that most people would call part of believing something, which are entirely voluntary. For example, you say that you never choose to believe that the Sun is going to rise, but if you say that the sun will rise, you do indeed choose to say so, and if you wanted you could choose to say it will not.

Comment author: ChristianKl 07 April 2015 09:13:06PM 0 points [-]

We have beliefs in our heads without having to speak them and most people consider it possible to say "The Sun isn't going to rise tommorrow" without having a corresponding belief.

Comment author: Unknowns 08 April 2015 03:43:47AM 0 points [-]

I agree. I pointed this out myself and said that more is required for the belief than just saying the words.

Comment author: ChristianKl 08 April 2015 03:33:15PM 0 points [-]

I don't think saying the words is required to have a belief. It's neither sufficient nor necessary.

Comment author: estimator 07 April 2015 06:09:51PM 0 points [-]

Then I can't see any significant difference between your model and belief-in-belief model, which you claim to oppose.

It seems to me that what we usually call belief in belief basically means that someone holds a binary belief together with a quasi-Bayesian belief which conflicts with it.

Now it seems to be the definition of belief-in-belief, written in obscure terminology. Replace "quasi-Bayesian belief" to "actual belief", and "holds a binary belief" to "acts as if he had a belief" and that's it.