Post 3, Belief
In the last post I distinguished between facts and truth. I used fact in a familiar ordinary sense, to mean what is the case. Truth, by contrast, belongs to statements, beliefs, assertions, or judgments when they get what is the case right.
The next concept is belief, because knowledge involves belief, but belief by itself isn’t knowledge.
A belief is a way of taking something to be true. If I believe that the book is on the table, then I take it that the book is on the table. I may be right or wrong, but belief has that direction. It aims at truth, even when it misses.
This already separates belief from truth. A belief can be sincere and still false. I may honestly believe that I left my keys on the counter, only to find them later in my coat pocket. My belief was genuine, but it didn’t get things right. So sincerity doesn’t turn belief into truth.
Belief is also not the same as knowledge. Someone may believe something true without knowing it. Suppose I guess that a coin will land heads, and it does. My belief was true, but it wasn’t knowledge. It was true by accident. Something more is needed if a true belief is to count as knowledge.
Belief is also not the same as subjective certainty, i.e., felt conviction. I can believe something without feeling certain of it. I may believe it will rain tomorrow, while recognizing that I could be wrong. And I can feel subjectively certain about something that turns out to be false. So belief and subjective certainty can come apart.
Nor is belief the same as justification. I may believe something because I saw it, measured it, remembered it, inferred it, or heard it from a reliable source. In those cases, the belief may have justification. But I may also believe something because I misunderstood the evidence, trusted the wrong source, or simply wanted it to be true. The presence of belief doesn’t automatically supply justification.
This is why belief occupies an important place in the concept of knowledge. Knowledge isn’t detached from belief. If I know that the book is on the table, then I believe that the book is on the table. But the reverse doesn’t follow. If I believe that the book is on the table, it doesn’t follow that I know it. Belief is necessary for knowledge, but it isn’t sufficient.
There’s also a difference between merely saying something and believing it. A person can repeat a sentence without believing it. A student can memorize the words of an answer without understanding them. Someone can say what others expect to hear while withholding assent. So belief isn’t just the production of a sentence. It involves taking the claim to be so.
At the same time, belief doesn’t have to involve dramatic psychological intensity. I believe many things quietly. I believe there are trees outside, that I had breakfast this morning, that water freezes under certain conditions, and that other people have minds. These beliefs may not constantly appear before my attention, but they still shape how I think and act.
So belief is best understood, at least for present purposes, as taking something to be true. But that leaves several questions open. Is the belief true? Is it justified? Does the person understand what’s being believed? Is the belief protected from relevant error or defeat?
Those questions take us beyond belief itself. That’s why the next concept has to be justification. Belief may aim at truth, but justification concerns whether the belief is connected to truth in the right way.