In the spirit of Mark Twain

[GliderGuider]

26. Here's a slightly more organized run at the concept

As I use the word, beliefs are essentially the "a priori assumptions" about the world that form the foundation of our value system.

Examples of the sorts of beliefs/assumptions I'm talking about might include:

"There is (or is not) a reality separate from my perceptions."
"1+1 = 2."
"Dick Cheney is evil."
"There is a God."
"Religion is a crutch."
"Technology is good."
"Human social behavior is constrained by the Second Law of Thermodynamics".

Here's one way the associated neural/mental process flow might operate:

» Perceptions are the primary data inputs to the organism;
» Emotions mediate those perceptions, transforming the data into mental activity;
» Beliefs then frame the emotions, giving the emotional activity a defined ideational structure;
» The structure allows us then to apply reason to those beliefs, and thus to the original perceptional data that they frame.

From this point of view, the ability to form beliefs is a prerequisite for reason, because without the belief there is no abstract but well-formed mental structure against which to apply reason.

Animals may have beliefs, but they may be limited to basic interpretations of the world based closely on their perceptions, or are more along the line of conditioned expectations. Of course this idea is itself one of my own beliefs.