Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:29:00.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Knowledge before belief: Evidence from unconscious content

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Linda A. W. Brakel*
Affiliation:
Departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109, USA The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, Farmington Hills, MI48334, USA. [email protected]

Abstract

This commentary supports knowledge prior to belief, but from a different angle, supplementing the target article's central thesis. The target article evaluates belief-representations versus knowledge-representation in others. This commentary considers one's own unconscious knowledge, which can be prior to belief of any sort. Two examples are offered: one from clinical psychoanalysis, another involving a cognitive psychology duck/rabbit experiment.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brakel, L. A. W. (1989a). Negative hallucinations, other irretrievable experiences, and two functions of consciousness. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 70, 461479.Google Scholar
Brakel, L. A. W. (1989b). Understanding negative hallucination: Toward a developmental classification of disturbances in reality awareness. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 37, 437463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brakel, L. A. W. (2010). Unconscious knowing and other essays in psycho-philosophical analysis. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, D., & Reisberg, D. (1985). Can mental images be ambiguous? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 11, 317328.Google Scholar
Jastrow, J. (1900). Fact and fable in psychology. Houghton Mifflin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radford, C. (1970). Does unwitting knowledge entail unconscious belief? Analysis, 30, 103107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, T. (2000). Knowledge and its limits. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar