mel said: the connections between action and belief are often very tenuous, in fact approaching correlation zero. We watch it every week and mostly make no big thing about it. Of course the logic fallacy of "false cause" is why these two, action and belief, are so often separate.
dmb says: Zero correlation? Really? I think that whenever we act we are acting on the basis of beliefs so that the correlation approaches 100%. Except maybe in the case of sleepwalkers I don't see how anybody could do anything except on the basis of their beliefs. Granted, some actions can be based on habit, can be less than fully conscious and deliberate but there would still be a belief of some kind in the background. Can you think of any examples of action in the absence of belief? I can't really think of anything. mel: The model I had in mind to illustrate this is baseball. As far as I know, those guys are riddled with superstitions like maybe no one else on the planet. (Wear the same socks each game / grow a beard / hat backward on the bench, then turned forward on the field...ad infinitum) They almost all admit the superstitions are silly, but they won't play without them. So, on that model, 'false cause' beliefs are not the cause of behavior (strikes or homeruns), but rather the specific choices made in ACTION are. The athlete is not paid on his belief, but on his performance. So, by extension... One may credit or blame an action on belief, but the action is not the belief. They are truly independent. [Krimel] I think mel is on the right track here although I would take it even farther. Beliefs are usually more like contrived explanations for what we have already done. Belief, as such, hardly ever guides our action. If it did we would get next to nothing done. If I have to examine my beliefs about oral hygiene and the proper order of my teeth before brushing them, I would just let them rot. If I had to examine the structure of my beliefs before driving my car I would stay home. While some very specific behaviors might be belief driven, like voting, most are the result of habit and the consequences accrued from similar experiences in the past. I would say that any correspondence between or beliefs and our actions is entirely a matter of after the fact reflection. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
