r Charles I and all the other
monarchs who have come to a bad end; I change my mind, and walk out
without completing the transaction. But such incidents are rare, and
cannot constitute the whole of my belief that Charles I was executed.
The conclusion seems to be that, although a belief always MAY influence
action if it becomes relevant to a practical issue, it often exists
actively (not as a mere disposition) without producing any voluntary
movement whatever. If this is true, we cannot define belief by the
effect on voluntary movements.

There is another, more theoretical, ground for rejecting the view we
are examining. It is clear that a proposition can be either believed or
merely considered, and that the content is the same in both cases. We
can expect an egg for breakfast, or merely entertain the supposition
that there may be an egg for breakfast. A moment ago I considered the
possibility of being invited to become King of Georgia, but I do not
believe that this will happen. Now, it seems clear that, since believing
and considering have different effects if one produces bodily movements
while the other does not, there must be some intrinsic difference
between believing and considering*; for if they were precisely similar,
their effects also would be precisely similar. We have seen that the
difference between believing a given proposition and merely considering
it does not lie in the content; therefore there must be, in one case
or in both, something additional to the content which distinguishes the
occurrence of a belief from the occurrence of a mere consideration
of the same content. So far as the theoretical argument goes, this
additional element may exist only in belief, or only in consideration,
or there may be one sort of additional element in the case of belief,
and another in the case of consideration. This brings us to the second
view which we have to examine.

* Cf. Brentano, "Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte,"
p. 268 (criticizing Bain, "The Emotions and the Will").

(1) The theory which we have now to consider regards belief as belonging
to every idea which is entertained, except in so far as some positive
counteracting force interferes. In this view belief is not a positive
phenomenon, though doubt and disbelief are so. What we call belief,
according to this hypothesis, involves only the appropriate content,
which will have the effects characteristic of belief unless something
else op