Re: M & I

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St.Christian comments:

"as it is, i wonder just what criteria and limits, and especially what
assumptions, would attach to a working definition of belief as an analytic
utility....consider this.... can a single concept be outfited to encompass
and in some way describe both

the opening of the apostle's creed [ i beleive in one god, the maker of
heaven and earth etc...]

and

In the time before there were people, Tagaloa created these islands by
tossing several stones over his shoulder into the sea....

what definition of belief would include both of these, and in what way can
these assertions justifiably be distinguished from other assertions of
knowledge"

I won't try to answer his question, but suggest that part of the problem is
not distinguishing between "what is believed" versus "what constitutes a
belief". If we take a "belief" to roughly mean something like: "what are the
assumptions about the nature of things that I take as true and not open to
dispute", then there is not problem with accomodating both the apostle's
creed and the Tagaloa creation statement as instances of "belief".

D. Read
READ@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU

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