Belief's Guidance Function: Mechanisms, Control, and Categorization on the Output-Side of Belief

Belief states, once formed, don’t sit inert in our psychologies: they help shape our patterns of reasoning, cognition, and action as we navigate the world. This chapters explores this “output- side,” “back-end,” or “guidance” function of beliefs. The discussion centers around three questions. First: what is the guidance function—what kinds of processes does it shape, and how might that work? Second: what kinds of agential control capacities might we have to intervene on the output-side of belief states? And third: what upshots do these guidance-side dynamics have for questions about the nature of belief, and ongoing debates about the categorization of different kinds of doxastic states? The chapter argues that many classic philosophical questions about beliefs (such as what kind of control we have over beliefs, and what it is for something to be a belief state of a particular kind) should also incorporate consideration of the guidance side of belief. Throughout, points of ongoing debate and opportunities for further cognitive scientific investigation are identified.