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%stich[w89,jmc]		Notes on From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science

Stich is against notions of belief.

He never asks what an actor, organism or computer program, needs
in the way of beliefs in order to function successfully in the
commonsense informatic situation.

Our beliefs are more stable than the observations that give
rise to them or the patterns of reaction to which they lead.

30 ``They want to know what sort of thing a belief is ...''
Why may this be the wrong question?
Beliefs and the ascription of belief to oneself and others is
a learned mental activity.  Therefore, beliefs are what they
should be given their uses, and this can vary.

Moreover, suppose I say I believe Stich is a philosopher and
you agree that I have this belief.  What this belief is for
me is different from what it is for you and both differ
from the publicly statable proposition.

dialog
q: do robots need beliefs?
a: yes.
q: should they be stored as sentences?
a: that is often convenient, but they can sometimes be implicit,
and they can sometimes be represented as values of slots.

example: Napoleon died in 1827.  Slot under Napoleon.  Can CYC
answer Is there published somewhere a Napoleon reaction to the
death of Wellington?  No, because Napoleon died before Wellington.

Is Stich's replacement for beliefs adequate for robots or is
his notion clear enough to ask the question?