|
Propositional Attitude
A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person
to a proposition. They are often assumed to be the simplest components
of thought and can express meanings or content that can be true or false.
In being a type of attitude they imply a person can have different mental
postures towards a proposition, for example, believing, desiring or hoping
and therefore imply intentionality.
Linguistically, they are denoted by an embedded "that" clause,
for example, 'Sally believed that she had won'.
Propositional attitudes have directions of fit: some are meant to reflect
the world, others to influence it.
|