Some brief notes on my belief paper for Rutgers, while waiting to get on the plane (dont they now just say 'plane' or is it only 'deplane') to go to Montreal

Three theories of belief's relation to modernity.
1. modernity involves an incremental loss of belief. A zero-degree of belief would enable a society based on truth.
2. modernity involves transferences of belief from supernature (God) to other formations such as liberalism. This line of thought can involve the claim that belief is universal: all knowledge is constituted by belief: this view is shared by neo-Kantianism and pragmatism. It implies a dehistoricisation of the question concerning belief
3. Modernity involves a new kind of play with belief through the increasing social and cultural importance of its willing suspension.

I am interested in relations between 1 and 3 and I want to think them through in considering the relation between Godwin as social theorist and Godwin as novelist, especially in Caleb Williams. The original interest comes from this question: how is it that Godwin rationalises the narratology of suspension of belief at the same time that he creates a theory on the basis of a society committed to truth thought of as a zero-degree of (mere) belief?