This post is also a followup to Beware “I Believe”. Here is what I’ve learned.
Thinking about “believing in X” triggers positive affect, so one says “I believe in X”. The process that forms the “I believe in” thoughts is separate from the process that analyzes the content of propositions about the territory.
The “I believe in” process can really mess with one’s map. This happens in two ways:
It sticks post-it notes over sections of their already-formed map that sever those sections’ coherence with the rest of the map, e.g. a Christian who believes evolution happened but in various points God came in and did stuff that’s responsible for morality.
It tampers with bias-ridden fragile belief-forming methodology. They might do some transformation to incoming explanations of events so as to reconcile with “I believe in X”, which probably won’t increase its entanglement with the territory.
And as Eliezer pointed out in a comment to Robin’s post, the interference between the separate belief and “belief in” processes is paralleled by the confusing English word “believe” which refers to both processes. And there is no adequate synonym for saying something like “I believe in democracy.”
This post is also a followup to Beware “I Believe”. Here is what I’ve learned.
Thinking about “believing in X” triggers positive affect, so one says “I believe in X”. The process that forms the “I believe in” thoughts is separate from the process that analyzes the content of propositions about the territory.
The “I believe in” process can really mess with one’s map. This happens in two ways:
It sticks post-it notes over sections of their already-formed map that sever those sections’ coherence with the rest of the map, e.g. a Christian who believes evolution happened but in various points God came in and did stuff that’s responsible for morality.
It tampers with bias-ridden fragile belief-forming methodology. They might do some transformation to incoming explanations of events so as to reconcile with “I believe in X”, which probably won’t increase its entanglement with the territory.
And as Eliezer pointed out in a comment to Robin’s post, the interference between the separate belief and “belief in” processes is paralleled by the confusing English word “believe” which refers to both processes. And there is no adequate synonym for saying something like “I believe in democracy.”