Belief In An Age Of Intolerance

- H. L. Hix

Belief can refer to the thing believed, or to the act of believing, and the two meanings are equally available to this forum’s title, “Belief in an Age of Intolerance.” The title could disambiguate toward thing believed by substituting the plural: “Beliefs in an Age of Intolerance.” The title could disambiguate toward act of believing by substituting the gerund: “Believing in an Age of Intolerance.” As a stay against confusion from this ambiguity, as a way, in fact, to take advantage of the ambiguity to highlight salient facts about belief and intolerance, let “belief (t)” designate the thing believed, and “belief (a)” designate the act of believing. Belief (t) would include such usages as: “I know something if it is a justified true belief ”; “It is my belief that Olga Korbut was a better gymnast than Nadia Comăneci.” Belief (a) would include such usages as: “Belief in propaganda weakens citizenship”; “It’s a warped version of belief that cult practices.”

Those responsible for creating this forum are right to ask after the relationship between belief and intolerance. Distinguishing between belief (t) and belief (a) draws attention to a crucial fact about that relationship: Intolerance derives not from belief (t) but from belief (a). Explicitly stating that fact is important, because it would be easy to assume (and many persons