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Decoding Academia #1: Beliefs are like Possessions (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-24 02:04:45
Edited:
2021-12-24 02:07:08
Imported:
2026-06
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Hi everyone,

We are starting a Patreon bonus series focused on introducing and discussing academic research/papers that we find interesting and think are relevant to the kinds of topics we cover on Decoding the Gurus.

This first episode was a bit rushed due to restricted recording time but hopefully it gives you a taste of what we have in mind. We didn't even have time to joke about our Zoom backgrounds... I intended the prominent Oxford logo taken from an official Oxford Uni Zoom background pack as a set up for a joke about being non-pretentious and down to earth academics, but now it's just a looming status logo!

In any case, the paper we talk about this week is Abelson's 1986 paper 'Beliefs are like Possessions'. It's great even if it is a bit old. And I've attached to this post for anyone curious to read.

EDIT: Sorry about Matt's volume! We will get it right!

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Decoding Academia #1: Beliefs are like Possessions (Abelson, 1986)

Comments

Fishlyf

Is Matt's background from just after when Hermione lamped Malfoy?

Zera Holladay

Loved that discussion. Thanks for enlightening our minds. One request, that might be representative of your loyal Patreon fan base: could you include audio-only media? It’s not that I don’t love seeing your talking heads, it’s that the experience of listening to audio media isn’t the same as video media on the iPhone. Video is a pain when walking, driving, or out in public.

Sian Gibby

Fantastic. Great idea for a podcast segment. I was able to download a PDF of the article, but it might be better in future if you can talk about essays that are easier to find and read, if at all possible. Abelson's paper got me to thinking hard about the shades of distinction between beliefs and opinions and between both of those and convictions, all of which words have different sets of linguistic baggage. I enjoyed reading the paper also in light of my religious life (I use the term "outlook" to myself rather than "beliefs"), or religiosity, such as it is. He has a great many illuminating observations about characteristics of beliefs! I loved reading it and will listen a second time to your discussion. Thank you!!!

Lilydale

Great! It made me think of Julia Galef’s book “Scout Mindset” where she compares beliefs to to a territory to either defend like a soldier or scout like an explorer. Can’t wait for more of these decoding discussions!

Ian Steinberg

Thank you for providing this article and your engagement with it! Here are my thoughts: 1. The methodological tool of a “test of whether a metaphor has currency in the thinking of a society is to see whether the metaphor is coded in the language” (229). This is a rich insight and a great way to initiate a course of inquiry by doing a quick test to see if an idea is worth developing. 2. If I had to use Abelson to understand the use and circulation of belief in today’s media environment, I would argue that on a platform like Reddit beliefs are converted from possessions to intellectual property through a weird process of valorisation (Marx). The value of a belief as intellectual property draws from the same pool of attributes that Abelson lists on p 235 (sharedness, uniqueness, defensibility, extremity, centrality), but goes from a possession to intellectual property via a common currency of up and down votes. Since an expressed belief can be valued, disdained and ignored by other users of the platform through the voting mechanism it creates a simple discursive machine that converts what Abelson calls “distal” beliefs into “testable” beliefs. There is much more to say on this topic, but for now I’d suggest that this is a totally bizarre terrain for belief formation and circulation and it’s no wonder that there is a breakdown in consensus reality and an epistemic crisis. 3. This is a great development for your podcast! A Decoding the Gurus course syllabus is an awesome idea! Can you revisit Nguyen and Williams’s “Moral Outrage Porn” at some point?

Henry

Would be good to have the audio from these in the Galaxy Brain feed so it can be played from podcast app — but all good if too hard!!

Jesse Hodges

I’m curious about the overlap between reality-testing distal beliefs and relying on anecdotal data. For example, if I were to try to reality-test my pro-gun-control beliefs in reality, I would fail. The anecdotal data from my life does not support my beliefs. I’ve never been threatened by or in danger from a gun. What does that mean about the validity or value of this particular distal belief? I may also be misunderstanding the concept all together. 🙂

Sharmi

Talking about astrology, when I was in school, I'd read what it says for my sign, especially if I had something important going on that day. Say on a day of some important exam, if I saw "success in everything you do today" it would perk me up. OTOH, if I saw "all planets are conspiring against you" then I would use that message to disassociate myself from possible failure. Since I would never remember to go back and check on false positives/negatives, this astrology-gazing allowed me to soothe myself temporarily. I should also mention that it's a hobby of many to make (Vedic) astrological predictions where I come from.

Professor Matt

Yeah, the vast majority of the time in day to day life we don't attempt to falsify those predicitions. Nothing terrible happens as a result of believing in them so