Why implicit attitudes are (probably) not beliefs

A Madva - Synthese, 2016 - Springer
Synthese, 2016Springer
Should we understand implicit attitudes on the model of belief? I argue that implicit attitudes
are (probably) members of a different psychological kind altogether, because they seem to
be insensitive to the logical form of an agent's thoughts and perceptions. A state is sensitive
to logical form only if it is sensitive to the logical constituents of the content of other states
(eg, operators like negation and conditional). I explain sensitivity to logical form and argue
that it is a necessary condition for belief. I appeal to two areas of research that seem to show …
Abstract
Should we understand implicit attitudes on the model of belief? I argue that implicit attitudes are (probably) members of a different psychological kind altogether, because they seem to be insensitive to the logical form of an agent’s thoughts and perceptions. A state is sensitive to logical form only if it is sensitive to the logical constituents of the content of other states (e.g., operators like negation and conditional). I explain sensitivity to logical form and argue that it is a necessary condition for belief. I appeal to two areas of research that seem to show that implicit attitudes fail spectacularly to satisfy this condition—although persistent gaps in the empirical literature leave matters inconclusive. I sketch an alternative account, according to which implicit attitudes are sensitive merely to spatiotemporal relations in thought and perception, i.e., the spatial and temporal orders in which people think, see, or hear things.
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