Some Remarks on Beliefs and Normativity

Abstract: Some Remarks on Beliefs and Normativity

The aim of this work is to present some recent observations in Cognitive Science about beliefs and the way they are able to originate chains of actions and condition behaviors. It is not my aim to evaluate reliabilist views on beliefs in Philosophical Epistemology, but only to point out that certain scientific observations about the process of belief formation can help us to build an interesting theory. Contemporaneity brings many important challenges to traditional philosophical questions that can potentially broaden our knowledge, hence the importance of considering them in some detail. Some peculiarities of scientific investigation will be presented, some classifications to better understand the phenomenon of study, some difficulties that are imposed on scientific investigation and, finally, some considerations about the normative role of beliefs will be presented.