Yohanna asked:

I'm wondering about the claim "a belief is what we accept as truth" by J.W. Apps, and how truth and
belief are really connected to each other.

I'm thinking that this has a very individual answer, as what we believe becomes true in our own eyes.
I'd really like some help straightening out all my question marks about this!

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At least under one interpretation what Apps says is false. Someone might believe something and not
accept it as true. A mother might believe her son is a criminal, and still not accept such a terrible thing
as true.

But Apps might just mean that to believe some statement is the same as believing that statement is
true. If he means that, he is right. Believing something is just elliptical for believing that something is
true.

Of course, at the same time, you must remember that people sometimes make mistakes. So although
someone might believe something is true, that something might still be false, nevertheless. I am sure
you have believed things and later you found out you were wrong.

And this leads to a paradox pointed out by the American philosopher, C.S. Peirce. He pointed out that
although, of course, whenever we believe anything, we believe it is true (as I pointed out above)
nevertheless, we also believe that some of what we believe is wrong (unless we believe we are
infallible). So we are all in this predicament that although we believe that whatever we believe is true
(since otherwise, we would not believe it!) we believe, even know that some of our beliefs are false,
but we do not know which of our beliefs are false, since if we knew that, of course, we would not have
those beliefs in the first place. Strange, isn't it? Think that Mr. Apps thought of that?

Ken Stern