Dispositional belief

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In philosophy, the term dispositional belief refers to a belief that is not currently being considered by the mind, but is stored in memory and can be recalled later. It can be contrasted with the concept of occurrent belief.

An analogy can be drawn between these two types of belief by using the example of a computer: what is on its hard disk might be like the dispositional belief, and what is on its screen might be like the occurrent belief.

Dispositional beliefs can be formed without ever having been an occurrent belief - for example, if a vehicle passes by whilst a person is engaged in conversation, it may become a dispositional belief that "a vehicle passed by" immediately, as the matter was never consciously considered. To extend the computer analogy, this could be seen as being like downloading files directly to the hard disk without opening them.