Belief as a Disposition to Act: Variations on a Pragmatist Theme

• Autor(a) principal: Engel, Pascal
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Cognitio (São Paulo. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/cognitiofilosofia/article/view/13603
• topic: Belief; Habit; Disposition to act; Pragmatism; Analytic philosophy; Functionalism; Crença; Hábito; Disposição para agir; Pragmatismo; Filosofia analítica; Funcionalismo

One of the most familiar themes of pragmatist philosophy is the idea that belief is a disposition to act or a habit of action. Peirce took it from Alexander Bain and made it one of the cornerstones of his pragmatism. Since then it has been associated to the core of doctrines of classical pragmatism. Within analytic philosophy, the thesis that belief is a disposition to act has been equally influential, and much discussed from Ramsey to contemporary functionalist philosophy of mind.In this paper I want to show that, although it is a common thread of many pragmatist or pragmatist-inspired doctrines, the belief-as-dispositionto-act theme is played on very different tunes by the various philosophical performers. A whole book could be devoted to the topic. I shall limit myself here to the views of Peirce, James, Ramsey, contemporary functionalists, and Isaac Levi. Depending on how they interpret this theme, the pragmatist philosophers can emphasise more or less the role of theory and practice in their respective account of thought, truth and inquiry. When they stress the former pragmatists are what I shall call theoriapragmatists, when they put the stress on the latter, I’ll call them the praxis pragmatists. I suggest that the first variety is much more appealing that the other, and I side with the theoreticist pragmatists.