Belief, Inference, and the Self-Conscious Mind

Abstract

It is impossible to hold patently contradictory beliefs in mind together at once. Why? Because we know that it is impossible for both to be true. This impossibility is a species of rational necessity, a phenomenon that uniquely characterizes the relation between one person’s beliefs. I argue that the unity of the rational mind—what makes it one mind—is what explains why, given what we already believe, we can’t believe certain things and must believe certain others in this special sense. And what explains this is that beliefs and the inferences by which we acquire them are constituted by a particular kind of endorsement of those very states and acts. This, in turn, entails that belief and inference are essentially self-conscious: to hold a belief or to make an inference is at the same time to know that one does. An examination of the nature of belief and inference, in light of the phenomenon of rational necessity, reveals how the unity of the rational mind is a function of our knowledge of ourselves as bound to believe the true. Rational self-consciousness is the form of mental togetherness.

Marcus on forms of judgment and the theoretical orientation of the mind

“…An idea which has been taken increasingly seriously in the past couple of decades is that some judgment is not theoretical but ‘practical’ – not (as I will put it) truth‐seeking , but goodness‐seeking . This is not Marcus’ claim in the passage above (although he does defend it in other work (Marcus, 2018)). His thought here is more radical.…”

“…In Belief, Inference, and the Self-Conscious Mind (BISCM), 1 Eric Marcus analyses and responds to a core set of puzzles concerning belief and inference (Marcus, 2021). Most centrally on offer are: an explanation of non-evidential/non-observational doxastic self-knowledge (ch.…”

Marcus on self‐conscious knowledge of belief

“…I scrutinize an argument offered by (Marcus 2021) for the claim that ordinary human beliefs are necessarily known to their subjects. I sharpen a worry raised by Marcus himself that threatens to limit his conclusion to the claim that we have not knowledge but merely a capacity to know our beliefs in virtue of having them.…”

Some challenges raised by unconscious belief

“…Eric Marcus's Belief, Inference, and the Self‐Conscious Mind urges that beliefs of the sort possessed by normal adult humans are “essentially self‐conscious” (Marcus 2021, 6, 39). Marcus also grants that there are unconscious beliefs of the sort relevant in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy (34).…”