Abstract: This paper proposes an “object-centered” account of belief and believing that departs from the dominant, language-oriented accounts, according to which the objects of believing are linguistic or quasi-linguistic entities. The paper provides a critical examination of such language-oriented views, and also includes discussions of the disquotation principle, a puzzle about belief in non-existence, and whether one can believe an impossibility.

Keywords: belief, contradiction, Davidson, disquotation principle, identity,