November 8th to 11th, 2004

3rd DAY - Wednesday - November 10th, 2004 - 7 p.m.
3rd Session
1st Lecture

Belief as a Disposition to Act: Variations on a Pragmatist Theme
Prof. Dr. Pascal Engel
Université Paris IV - Sorbonne, France

[Abstract]
One of the most familiar themes of pragmatist philosophy is the idea that belief is a disposition to act or a habit of action. Peirce took it from Alexander Bain and made it one of the cornerstones of his pragmatism. Since then it has been associated to the core of doctrines of classical pragmatism. Within analytic philosophy, the thesis that belief is a disposition to act has been equally influential, and much discussed from Ramsey to contemporary functionalist philosophy of mind.
In this paper I want to show that, although it is a common thread of many pragmatist or pragmatist-inspired doctrines, the belief-as-disposition-to-act theme is played on very different tunes by the various philosophical performers. A whole book could be devoted to the topic. I shall limit myself here to the views of Peirce, James, Ramsey, contemporary functionalists, and Isaac Levi. Depending on how they interpret this theme, the pragmatist philosophers can emphasize more or less the role of theory and practice in their respective accounts of thought, truth and inquiry. When they stress the former pragmatists are what I shall call theoria-pragmatists, when they put the stress on the latter, I'll call them the praxis pragmatists. I suggest that the first variety is much more appealing than the other, and I side with the theoreticist pragmatists.

Center for Pragmatism Studies
Philosophy Graduate Program
Departament of Philosophy
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - Brazil