1. Beyond World Images: Belief as Embodied Action in the World.
- Author
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Strand, Michael and Lizardo, Omar
- Subjects
- *
BELIEF & doubt , *FIELD theory (Social psychology) , *SOCIAL psychology , *PRAGMATISM , *MODERN philosophy - Abstract
In this article, we outline the analytic limitations of action theories and interpretive schemes that conceive of beliefs as explicit mental representations linked to a desire-opportunity folk psychology. Drawing on pragmatism and practice theory, we recast the notion of belief as a species of habit, with pre-reflexive anticipation the primary mechanism accounting for both the formation of beliefs and their causal influence on action. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in three ways: first, by linking it with recent research on the cognitive and motor development of infants; second, by drawing out a typology of belief states that accounts for a range of different experiential traits; and third, by applying the new model to reinterpret two belief-based phenomena of broad sociological interest: “irrational” decision making and religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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