Doxastic attitudes governed by a principle of coherence

When we attempt to account for the entirety of human behavior, it has been proposed that we must look not only to belief, but also to something else. This need becomes evident when we think of cases in which we are disposed to act in ways discordant with our conscious beliefs. But rather than looking to something else to explain this phenomenon, I argue for a new theory of belief which advances the idea that certain beliefs are governed by different rules and principles. I argue that the content of implicit beliefs is governed by a deeply rooted and inherent principle in the unconscious mind: coherence. As a result of this principle, beliefs cognitively penetrate our perceptual experiences of the external world. It is this new theory of belief, according to a principle of coherence that provides a superior explanation to competing theories for instances in which we profess to believe P, but act according to not-P