Since "belief" is not publically observable but is exclusively privately accessible it isn't a surprise that there is no knowledge about belief as such but there can be only knowledge about verbal expressions dealing with "belief" which however may differ depending on the conventional knowledge the speaker/writer follows.Steve3007 wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2021, 10:32 amSorry to ask a cryptic question. It's just that there used to be a poster on here who went by the name "creation" and then later re-appeared under the name "evolution". It wasn't those names that I was thinking about, when asking you the question. It was the fact that he regularly declared himself not to believe anything. I think in his case this was because he had some funny ideas about what it means to believe something. I think he conflated it with religious faith, or similar. Anyway, your comment reminded me of that. But you're clearly not him, so don't worry about it.stevie wrote:Hmh, not sure if I get this right....
If someone expresses something verbally this verbal expression does not display whether the subject using it
- claims/asserts what is expressed because she/he believes the expression to be or represent truth
- intends to lie about what she/he believes to be her/his "real" view
- uses the expression playfully
- uses the expression as a proposal
- uses the expression indifferent about whether it is true or false
- uses the expression without any notion of true/truth/false/falsehood/reality/illusion.
In this context there might also be a difference between thoughts appearing spontaneously and effortlessly and being expressed and thoughts generated through some effort and being expressed. The latter are often connected with more or less conscious intentionality (intended goal like in the context of assertions/claims, logical reasonings) while the former just kind of happen due to acquired thinking habits (conditioned). The latter may become the former through conditioning/continued practice losing their intentionality. The latter are more likely connected with beliefs while the former can be but not necessarily are free from beliefs.
So this is just how things appear to me but may be helpful to get some notion of how I am conditioned to think about "belief".