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  "description": "This article is part of the ongoing series How Belief Works, which is best read in order.\n\nWe all know what it means to believe something, from the significant, such as the belief that humans are apes, to the mundane, such as the belief that there's no milk in the fridge. Indeed, belief is one of the most basic concepts of human psychology. Yet it's also one of those everyday concepts that can be surprisingly difficult to define, like art or happiness.\n\nBelief is a psychological state involving ",
  "path": "/what-is-belief/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-31T18:27:04.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.derrickfarnell.site",
  "tags": [
    "How Belief Works",
    "one-time or monthly donation",
    "email me",
    "save the current version in the Internet Archive",
    "here",
    "an archive of this article on GitHub"
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  "textContent": "_This article is part of the ongoing series_ How Belief Works_, which is best read in order._\n\nWe all know what it means to believe something, from the significant, such as the belief that humans are apes, to the mundane, such as the belief that there's no milk in the fridge. Indeed, belief is one of the most basic concepts of human psychology. Yet it's also one of those everyday concepts that can be surprisingly difficult to define, like art or happiness.\n\nBelief is a psychological state involving a claim. In the above examples it's believed that _humans are apes_ and that _there's no milk in the fridge_.\n\nWe usually think of a claim as something expressed by someone, whether it's spoken or written. However, a believed claim hasn't necessarily been expressed by anyone. Upon looking inside the fridge, we can form the belief _There's no milk in the fridge_ without anyone, including ourselves, _expressing_ on this occasion that there's no milk in the fridge.\n\nAlso note that the term _belief_ can refer to either the psychological state or the believed claim. That is, it can refer to either believing something or something believed. In the first sense, my belief _There's no milk in the fridge_ is a different thing from someone else's belief, regarding the same fridge, _There's no milk in the fridge,_ given that they're separate psychological states existing in different heads. But in the second sense they’re the same thing: the believed claim _There's no milk in the fridge_.\n\nSo the term _mundane belief_ can refer to either believing a mundane claim or a mundane claim that's believed – and likewise for the term _significant belief_. Although, we often use the term _belief_ by itself to refer to a significant claim that's believed, whether moral, political, religious, historical, philosophical or scientific. For example, when we refer to defending our beliefs, we're referring to defending particular significant claims we believe.\n\nThis series concerns our belief of any kind of claim, however significant or mundane. Other examples of mundane beliefs are my current beliefs that I’m in my flat, that I'm sitting on a chair at my desk, that I'm typing these words, that it's Tuesday morning, that it’s sunny outside, and that I went for a hike along a river yesterday.\n\nBut what's the _definition_ of the psychological state of belief? Given that this state involves a claim, one potential definition can seem as obvious as it is simple: considering a claim to be true. But although this definition can seem irrefutable, it's fatally logically flawed – as I’ll explain in the next article, on how beliefs form.\n\nShare\n\nNext article: How Beliefs Form – Part 1 (forthcoming)\n\nHow Belief Works\n\n### Support my work\n\nMy writings will always be free and ad-free. Please consider making a one-time or monthly donation of your choice to support my work.\n\n### Feedback\n\nI view my published writings as still works in progress, and welcome feedback about both the writing and its content, _however minor_. I also welcome feedback about the website. You can comment below or email me.\n\n### Referencing this article\n\nIf referencing this article you should include the date of reading, as the content can change. Also, you can save the current version in the Internet Archive and then link to the archived copy.\n\n### Article history\n\nPast versions of this article are available in the Internet Archive here – and, for previous locations, here, here and here. There's also an archive of this article on GitHub.\n\n## Subscribe\n\nSubmit\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.",
  "title": "What Is Belief?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-07-26T22:53:41.949Z"
}