Believing and Beliefs—Neurophysiological Underpinnings

Seitz, Rüdiger J.

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.880504

Cited by 14 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…(e) This allows us to hypothesize that the 'capacity of believing' is a result of the evolution of the brain. The parietal cortex which accommodates in close vicinity the neural representations of executive, perceptual, and higher order conceptual functions may be a candidate area (Seitz, 2022).…”

Section: Milestones Toward Creditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways and crossroads to creditions: Insights from a retrospective view

Angel

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Credition is a neologism derived from the Latin word credere (to believe) and designates processes of believing (Angel, 2013a). In many languages (and esp. in German) the term belief is widely associated with religion and religious beliefs. Indeed, the need for a new term became evident during the so-called Regensburg Symposia (1998-2005) (Angel, 2006a) that were aimed at increasing our understanding of the phenomenon of religiosity (see below) and the dynamics of 'religious beliefs'. Given this background, it is important to emphasize that credition is neither a religious nor a theological term. Rather, it was coined as a psychological term in analogy to other psychological terms including cognition, emotion, and volition. No religion is needed in order to understand "credition, " but knowledge about credition may help us to better understand religious beliefs. Although the intention of this article is to point to issues which appeared as crossroads and pathways in the emerging history of creditions, it does not present a chronology of events but focusses on theoretical issues. Precursory hermeneutics as crossroads to credition Blind spot time-related beliefsTalking about belief or credition means initially to talk about notions, i.e., the notion of belief and the notion of credition. Both terms highlight related but different phenomena. Belief has been a topic discussed since Antiquity. It might have contributed to our lack of understanding that something like fluid or temporally evolving believing processes might exist because, at least since late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the predominant scientific practice has been to talk about 'belief ' as a static entity, i.e., as a noun (Angel, 2022a). But on a linguistic level we must address the relation between a noun and its corresponding verb. To proceed from a noun related understanding of beliefs to an action-based understanding of believing processes that can be expressed in terms of a verb (e.g., while believing) requires a paradigm shift. The paradigm shift that underpins going from understanding beliefs to understanding the processes of believing is a precondition Frontiers in Psychology frontiersin.org Angel . /fpsyg. .

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Section: Milestones Toward Creditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways and crossroads to creditions: Insights from a retrospective view

Angel

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…Primates are special in that their brains evolved with the addition of new functional subdivisions to the neocortex (Dooley and Krubitzer, 2013 ). Areas in the parietal cortex related to self-awareness and social-awareness may be essential to the development of mental models of introspectively based social strategies and language, forming the basis for conceptual beliefs and culture (Gallup, 1998 ; Sugiura et al, 2015 ; Bretas et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Seitz and Angel, 2020 ; Seitz, 2022 ). Conceptual beliefs , thereupon, give support to meta-beliefs, elevating relational beliefs about the other to language-bound discrete concepts (e.g., “the other believes…”) to achieve a comprehensive notion of the world grounded in internal representations of the physical, social, and cultural environments (Angel and Seitz, 2016 ; Bretas et al, 2020 ; Seitz and Angel, 2020 ).…”

Section: The Self In the Mirrormentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory integration and belief in the self

et al. 2022

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“…Because beliefs can be semantically encoded into language, we can become aware of them. By reflecting on these beliefs, the brain can affect valuations, changing beliefs and the processing of perceptual information (Seitz et al, 2019 ; Seitz and Angel, 2020 ; Seitz, 2022a , b ). For example, by reflecting on the irrationality of racist beliefs, one can affect their snap judgements about others.…”

Section: Believing Is Seeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Believing is seeing: A Buddhist theory of creditions

Forman

2022

Front. Psychol.

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The creditions model is incredibly powerful at explaining both how beliefs are formed and how they influence our perceptions. The model contains several cognitive loops, where beliefs not only influence conscious interpretations of perceptions downstream but are active in the subconscious construction of perceptions out of sensory information upstream. This paper shows how this model is mirrored in the epistemology of two central Buddhist figures, Dignāga (480–540 CE) and Dharmakı̄rti (c. 550–650 CE). In addition to showing these parallels, the paper also demonstrates that by drawing on Dignāga and Dharmakı̄rti's theory, we can extend the explanatory power of the creditions model. Namely, while creditions explain how beliefs influence both the conscious interpretation and subconscious construction of sensory information, Dignāga and Dharmakı̄rti suggest beliefs can even be generative of sensory-like information. I recruit ancient Buddhist texts in conjunction with contemporary cognitive science scholarship to offer a hypothesis for the cognitive mechanisms responsible for this.

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Believing and Beliefs—Neurophysiological Underpinnings

Cited by 14 publications

References 52 publications

Pathways and crossroads to creditions: Insights from a retrospective view

Pathways and crossroads to creditions: Insights from a retrospective view

Multisensory integration and belief in the self

Believing is seeing: A Buddhist theory of creditions

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