Beliefs are confident opinions about something. To feel confident about a belief requires that one entertain the belief. To entertain a belief is to entertain the possibility of it being untrue. This type of cognitive processing would be unlikely without a verbal assist. Of course, definitions can be set-ups for conclusions. Since I already defined belief as a type of opinion, concluding that beliefs are necessarily verbal isn’t exactly earth shattering. But how about if I defined belief as “a confident attitude or feeling that something is the case”? Admittedly, that sounds odd – it would be more natural to say “to be confident that something is the case”. The point remains: attitudes or feelings can exist without ever being articulated (not so, opinions).
Trust, reverence, arrogance, and self-efficacy all include a type of confidence that something is the case: he won’t let me down, that is awe-inspiring, I am brilliant, I can do this. But calling this confidence a “belief” doesn’t sound right.
One problem is that beliefs are discrete but attitudes and feelings exist along a continuum. You either believe something or you don’t. If you have doubts, you don’t believe. But you can be more or less trusting.
So can a discrete belief exist prior to and independent of putting it into words? I think not.
But what about “implicit beliefs”? (Next)