Belief shouldn’t be denied to non-linguistic animals, in part because the best explanation of the origin of language probably involves beliefs. Intelligent primates are keenly aware of the (I’ll go ahead and beg the question a little) beliefs and desires of their associates. They wish to communicate their own psychological states, and learn more about, and influence, those of the others. Language is an extremely effective tool for these purposes, so it caught on.
We could call these non-linguistic states “proto-beliefs” (and I suppose “proto-desires”?) instead. The story then has it that the primates only wanted to learn and influence the proto-beliefs of their group, and getting full fledged beliefs in the bargain is merely an acceptable side-effect (later to become a highly desirable effect). But if getting information on, and influence on, the “proto-beliefs” of others is such a big success story, then the “proto-” qualifier is unjustified. Anything that does this much work deserves the label “belief”.
Sure, language adds a lot of complexity and refinement. But if you think non-human animals can’t introduce information into amazingly varied contexts, you haven’t studied them enough.
Belief shouldn’t be denied to non-linguistic animals, in part because the best explanation of the origin of language probably involves beliefs. Intelligent primates are keenly aware of the (I’ll go ahead and beg the question a little) beliefs and desires of their associates. They wish to communicate their own psychological states, and learn more about, and influence, those of the others. Language is an extremely effective tool for these purposes, so it caught on.
We could call these non-linguistic states “proto-beliefs” (and I suppose “proto-desires”?) instead. The story then has it that the primates only wanted to learn and influence the proto-beliefs of their group, and getting full fledged beliefs in the bargain is merely an acceptable side-effect (later to become a highly desirable effect). But if getting information on, and influence on, the “proto-beliefs” of others is such a big success story, then the “proto-” qualifier is unjustified. Anything that does this much work deserves the label “belief”.
Sure, language adds a lot of complexity and refinement. But if you think non-human animals can’t introduce information into amazingly varied contexts, you haven’t studied them enough.