From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Jan 05 2003 - 21:41:53 MST
Brett explains why a number of careful thinkers go ballistic
when they hear the word "belief". I had always wondered about
that.
> [Some people] have not yet separated themselves from
> superstition and when they stick their uncritical,
> unweighted, propositions in each others faces they
> do so proclaiming all too often, all too proudly,
> as though it were a great virtue in itself,
> "this is what I BELIEVE !".
It is perhaps significant that I don't ever recall anyone using
the word in this manner, and I have even entertained a number
of religionists who've knocked at the door. That is *so*
mindless, that perhaps it's a vanishing usage.
> IMO, "beliefs", by their very nature, and as opposed to reasons,
> are ultimately counter-social.
I know what you mean, and you know what I and other sensible
people mean when we say "believe" or "belief". It has been
a useful conveyor of the amount of certainty the speaker feels.
One customarily speaks even of "degrees of belief".
> They build barriers between people. Whereas reason through
> the medium of language can potentially build bridges.
Do you really have evidence in your personal life that
people you talk to are handicapped in this way? I'm willing
to trust you, but it seems to me that this is a nice theory
that has no real utility. For example, people whose thinking
is screwed up anyway aren't going to be magically helped by
dropping a certain term and fishing around for synonyms.
> Please do consider ditching "belief", "human life" and "human
> beings" from your operating language when other terms are
> available.
Do you believe in Sapir/Whorf? By that I mean the hypothesis
that our vocabulary and grammar greatly influence our thoughts?
I only weakly believe in it; sure, a lot of our thought would
be impossible without language, and I also believe that the
speakers of some languages, e.g. Japanese and French, end up
with a tiny few differences from those of us who's primary
language is English.
Oops. Sorry. I used "the word" twice without realizing it
there! (Yes, the third time was deliberate.) But you know
exactly what I mean. The purpose of language is to convey
our thoughts.
Now this is a different matter entirely from my own suggestion
that people stop referring to "rights" in the abstract. I
consider that to be an indicator that the speaker believes
(sorry) in "Absolute Right and Wrong", just as if he or she
were relying on Authority. But I don't care if someone, even
me, actually uses it in sentences when the meaning steers
clear of absolutism.
I do have one friend who used to get a very worried look
on his face whenever I or others used the word "belief".
He gave up on that some years back; I think he knows what
we mean. But he never explained it as well as you did.
Thanks.
Lee
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