High-Level and Low-Level Beliefs

Abstract

In this chapter we formulate in more detail one understanding of the practical turn, namely the understanding that the practical turn consists principally in a shift from the consideration of high-level theoretical systems of religious or philosophical belief to the consideration of individual low-level practical beliefs. This translates into a shift in the burden of the courts’ argument: previously it was difficult to say whether an action manifested a belief, but easy to say whether, if it did, it would be protected, but now, after the practical turn, the situation is reversed: it is easy to say whether an action manifests a belief, but difficult to say whether it is protected.