Representational states are the ones that make up your map of the world. They tend to change if you have experiences that indicate they are inaccurate. Beliefs are like this. Desires aren't. (Philosophers will sometimes distinguish between "belief-like" and desire-like" states.)
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Good question! My guess would be that different people who say that slogan probably all have somewhat different meanings in mind?
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Yeah, this is an interesting question. There's a huge literature on it in philosophy, but I only know a little of it. Does belief require understanding? It seems like the answer is no. I can believe that E=mc^2 even if I know nothing of physics.
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But we can make a strong argument for "yes" as well. The physicist who understands E=mc^2 believes something different than I do if I only know to recite the slogan. They believe something about the relationship between mass and energy.
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Maybe all I believe is that "The equation E=mc^2 expresses a truth." But I don't really believe that E=mc^2 because I don't understand it. Maybe we should say the same thing about "God is omnipotent." If that's an incoherent claim, I could still (falsely) believe it expresses...
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a truth. But I can't understand "God is omnipotent" because it's incoherent, and thus can't really believe that God is omnipotent. But because i believe the claim expresses a truth, i might still endorse it if questioned or bet on it if challenged (e.g.).
End of conversation
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