Please explain William Clifford\'s understanding of belief in his essay The Ethi
ID: 1501362 • Letter: P
Question
Please explain William Clifford's understanding of belief in his essay The Ethics of Belief. Secondly, use The Will to Believe to explain William James understanding of belief when it comes to genuine options that have no intellectual grounds to support the belief. In your own reasoned opinion, who is correct on the issue of belief? Clifford or James? Why? explain William Clifford's understanding of belief in his essay The Ethics of Belief. Secondly, use The Will to Believe to explain William James understanding of belief when it comes to genuine options that have no intellectual grounds to support the belief. In your own reasoned opinion, who is correct on the issue of belief? Clifford or James? Why?
Explanation / Answer
William Clifford's understanding :
In the “Ethics of Belief,” William Clifford argued that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe
anything upon insufficient evidence.” The example that Clifford gives of the immorality of belief without evidence is
that of a ship owner, who forgoes an overhaul of his ship, overcoming his doubts, and believing his ship sea-worthy,
rather than going through the expense of checking it and making the necessary repairs. This example is one that
plays off belief against self-interest. The ship owner overcomes his doubts for the sake of self-interest. He then
collects his insurance, while everyone in his ship dies at sea, because the vessel had proven unseaworthy.
Clifford generalizes from this narrative to all matters of belief, where evidence is insufficient. “It is
never lawful to stifle a doubt.” he writes. When someone retorts, “But I am a busy man; I have no time for a long
course of study which would make me in any degree a competent judge of certain questions, or even be able to
understand the nature of the arguments.” Clifford responds, “Then he should have no time to believe.”
William James understanding :
In “The Will to Believe,” William James argues that we have a right to believe in some cases, when supporting
evidence may be inadequate.Moral decisions are made when two conflicting values present themselves and a
choice has to be made between them. Clifford’s scientific and skeptical suspension of belief is not helpful in such
cases. Religious beliefs would constitute another example.
James speaks of the passionate existence of human beings, who cannot live by the skeptical
suspension of belief that Clifford dictates on all of life. James quotes Pascal: “The heart has its reasons that reason
knows nothing about.” Religion says essentially two things, according to James. “First that the best things are the
more eternal things, overlapping things, the things in the universe that throw the last stone, so to speak” and that we
are better off even now with the affirmation of religion.
who is correct on the issue of belief?
In my opinion , James is correct on the issue of belief . While Clifford globalizes his mandate for avoiding error,
James shows that life’s decisions are far more nuanced than Clifford realizes.
Now when Clifford negates all belief without evidence in order to avoid error, he does not recognize that some
decisions are forced and momentous. Religious belief is a forced and momentous option for James because it is like
getting married: to delay it indefinitely because one could not be perfectly sure that it would not lead to a divorce,
would forfeit the good of the marriage. Such beliefs bring the realities their assertions refer to into existence.
Of course, whether or not one takes an umbrella along in the morning is not a forced option: one
could stay home; it is more trivial than momentous. Some decisions, however, are live, forced and
momentous and to suspend belief because sufficient evidence is impossible, would bankrupt much of the heart of
our lives as we live them. James is writing about areas where clear-cut, objective evidence is unavailable. He does
not, of course, advocate ignoring or denying real evidence.