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Re: THEORY: Are commands to believe infelicitous?

From:Joseph Bridwell <zhosh@...>
Date:Saturday, May 28, 2005, 15:07
> I was drawing a parallel between the computer > instruction "STORE" and the command "believe". > You can tell a computer "this field is
I had assumed this was your meaning. Also true of any other system of storage which is neither self aware nor able to objectively weigh the factualness of data.
> To command a person to believe, on the other > hand, is to commit a categorical error of the > kind Kant warned against. It is to insult > the person by treating them as if they are > a machine (to wit, a computer).
Perhaps, but I doubt that anyone seriously issuing such a command is aware of this implication. The Hawaiian examples implying "rely" are interesting, but I question their universality. There's an archaic English usage in which "believe" implies "judge" e.g. "I believe meanly of John". I'm more of a mind that when someone commandingly says "Believe!", while implying "take as true", more often is commanding the person (s) to act in ways that imply they believe.
> I did not introduce the word "faith" into > the discussion. AFAIK you did.
Mea culpa. I may have opened this door by my example of choosing to believe in reincarnation.
> Modern psychotherapists often counsel > patients to believe something other than > what they now believe, as if it were possible > to simply change one's mind.
As someone undergoing psychotherapy for depression and social anxiety, I don't believe any serious therapist holds this idea to be simple. I'm not a therapist, and I hope that beliefs can be changed, but I'm skeptical until I experience it.
> One responder has shown that Hawaiian words > translating "believe" have somewhat different > connotations than English "believe", more like > "rely on". Can you think of other languages > that might make a difference?
I was recently perusing some older texts on Algonquin - Cree and Mi'qmau - and ran across usages of "see" and "say" to express belief & thought: "I say I know the answer.", "I see he is good". I know neither language well enough to attest to how factual this is.