ABSTRACT
It is commonly acknowledged that ‘believe’ is usually a dispositional word. The difference between a behaviourist and a mentalist over such statements as ascribe beliefs to people is not usually as to whether they refer to a disposition or an occurrence. More probably the difference is this, that while the behaviourist takes it that such statements claim that certain physical events, e.g., certain movements of the man's body, would occur or be likely to occur in certain more or less determinately specifiable situations, the extreme mentalist thinks that the claim is rather that certain private mental events would occur, or are likely to occur, in certain more or less determinately specifiable situations. A moderate mentalist 1 might claim that what was in question was the likelihood of certain mental and certain physical events occurring.
