ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the general characteristics of beliefs. The more accurately a belief represents reality the more useful, and valuable, that belief can be. One of the distinctions that can be made about beliefs concerns whether they correspond with physical reality or subjective reality. Objective beliefs represent physical reality more or less literally. A belief is internally coherent when it is free of internal contradiction. It is externally coherent when it is consistent with external information, i.e., either the physical world or other beliefs. One of the ways in which beliefs are hierarchically organized concerns how central a role they play in our life. Central beliefs are generally acquired early in life. Although they may arise from one particularly poignant experience, it is more common that central beliefs are built from repeated experiences across a broad range of contexts. There are many different types of beliefs, depending largely on the type of target they represent.
