Belief

This week we are discussing Belief.

"Belief is the mental stance we adopt when we take something to be the case or regard it as true—even if not actively reflecting on it. Philosophers distinguish occurrent beliefs (currently conscious) from dispositional ones (held but not actively thought about). Beliefs may be “full” or categorical (one either believes or not), or “partial,” exhibiting degrees of certainty. Several theoretical frameworks describe belief: representationalism (mental content reflecting the world), functionalism/dispositionalism (beliefs as dispositions to behave), and interpretationism (beliefs as constructs for prediction). Formal epistemology studies belief revision—how we update beliefs with new evidence—via systems like the AGM model." -ChatGPT summary

Our reading for this week is the Stanford Encyclopedia article on the topic here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/

If it's your first time, don't feel obligated to read anything in advance, but bring your iPad or tablet, if you have one. All are welcome, if philosophically inclined. Try to arrive early. We start the discussion at 12:15pm, exactly. Here's a little something about skepticism and something more on other philosophical topics. We are closer to Hawthorne than to Kuhn.

If the meeting is full, join the waitlist and check again on Sunday morning. You may find a spot has opened up. Also, see what meetings are coming up in the weeks ahead.