Que valent les idées face aux croyances?

Abstract

The weakness of ideas is often opposed to the strength of beliefs, viewed as the motor of our practices, actions and lives. Following some close insights from Fouillée, Lovejoy and Peirce, one shows this betrays a deep misunderstanding about the very nature of ideas, of beliefs, and, more, generally, of the mind’s processes. The causes of it are diagnosed, and can be traced back to the old polysemy of the concept of idea, as is made clear by the history of philosophy. In stressing some features of both ideas and beliefs, one shows why ideas count more than one thinks, just as the history suggested by philosophy of some of them ; and also why both beliefs and the understanding of their mechanisms are as much as, and even more than ideas, at the heart of the strategy called for today in order, not only to think, but also to know and to act.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21747/21836892/fil33a1