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A Phenomenal, Dispositional Account of Belief
Author(s) -
Schwitzgebel Eric
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
noûs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.574
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1468-0068
pISSN - 0029-4624
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0068.00370
Subject(s) - externalism , ceteris paribus , epistemology , attribution , psychology , cognition , philosophy of mind , internalism and externalism , social psychology , cognitive psychology , philosophy , metaphysics , neuroscience
This paper describes and defends in detail a novel account of belief, an account inspired by Ryle’s dispositional characterization of belief, but emphasizing irreducibly phenomenal and cognitive dispositions as well as behavioral dispositions. Potential externalist and functionalist objections are considered, as well as concerns motivated by the inevitably ceteris paribus nature of the relevant dispositional attributions. It is argued that a dispositional account of belief is particularly well‐suited to handle what might be called “in‐between” cases of believing—cases in which it is neither quite right to describe a person as having a particular belief nor quite right to describe her as lacking it.