Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Does it make sense to treat our beliefs as though they were explicitly represented in the brain? Eric Schwitzgebel offers some arguments that show how this leads to confusion. It's based on what's called 'the problem of tacit belief', where a 'tacit belief' is a belief you have, but which is not explicitly represented (for example, that there are fewer that 2,342,609 beers in the fridge). Representationalists will say that these are derived from 'core beliefs', but what counts as a 'core belief'? "But the distinction has no practical importance, doesn't map onto ordinary patterns of belief attribution, and has no empirical support." Why does this matter? Think of all the (pseudo-)theories of education based on 'belief' as a distinct state of mind or brain. That's why.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 01, 2025 11:52 a.m.

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