I await the eager defenses of belief in belief in the comments, but I wonder if anyone would care to jump ahead of the game and defend belief in belief in belief? Might as well go ahead and get it over with.
My boyfriend was once feeling a bit tired and unmotivated for a few months (probably mild depression), and he also wanted to stop eating dairy for ethical reasons. He felt that his illness was partly mentally generated. He decided that he was allergic to dairy, and that dairy was causing his illness. Then he stopped eating dairy and felt better!
He told me all this, and also told me that he usually believes he is actually allergic to dairy, and it is hard to remember that he is not. When someone asks how he knows he is allergic to dairy, he says something plausible and false (“The doctor ran blood tests”) and believes it if he doesn’t stop and think too much.
He believes he is not allergic to dairy, but he believes he believes he is allergic to dairy? Belief-in-belief. But he recognizes this and explained it to me—so that’s a belief-in-belief-in-belief? But it helped him get over his mental illness and stop eating dairy… that’s winning.
In general I would say a belief-in-belief is useful if you decide some behaviors are desirable, but some false model of the world better motivates you to behave properly. Belief-in-belief-in-belief is useful if you know too much to think both “Z is true” and “I believe not-Z”. Then you tell yourself you have a belief-in-belief.
Disclaimer: This is weird to me and I don’t really understand how he pulls it off.
My boyfriend was once feeling a bit tired and unmotivated for a few months (probably mild depression), and he also wanted to stop eating dairy for ethical reasons. He felt that his illness was partly mentally generated. He decided that he was allergic to dairy, and that dairy was causing his illness. Then he stopped eating dairy and felt better!
He told me all this, and also told me that he usually believes he is actually allergic to dairy, and it is hard to remember that he is not. When someone asks how he knows he is allergic to dairy, he says something plausible and false (“The doctor ran blood tests”) and believes it if he doesn’t stop and think too much.
He believes he is not allergic to dairy, but he believes he believes he is allergic to dairy? Belief-in-belief. But he recognizes this and explained it to me—so that’s a belief-in-belief-in-belief? But it helped him get over his mental illness and stop eating dairy… that’s winning.
In general I would say a belief-in-belief is useful if you decide some behaviors are desirable, but some false model of the world better motivates you to behave properly. Belief-in-belief-in-belief is useful if you know too much to think both “Z is true” and “I believe not-Z”. Then you tell yourself you have a belief-in-belief.
Disclaimer: This is weird to me and I don’t really understand how he pulls it off.