PHIL 1110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Evidentialism
Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” (not in our textbook)
Evidentialism (Clifford’s main thesis): “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for
anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”
Perception/sensation Belief Action
Two reasons why we should be concerned with “correct belief formation”:
(1) Belief is intimately bound up with how we see things and how we act: “No real belief,
however trifling and fragmentary it may seem, is ever truly insignificant; it prepares us to
receive more of its like, confirms those which resembled it before, and weakens others;
and so gradually it lays a stealthy train in our inmost thoughts, which may someday
explode into overt action, and leave its stamp on our character for ever.”
(2) Our beliefs are not a private matter: “Our words, our phrases, our forms and processes
and modes of thought, are common property, fashioned and perfected from age to age; an
heirloom which every succeeding generation inherits as a precious deposit and a sacred
trust to be handed on to the next one, not unchanged but enlarged and purified, with some
clear marks of its proper handiwork.”
What matters when it comes to the rightness or wrongness of holding a given belief is not
whether the belief is true or false, but whether we have the right to hold the belief.
Consider the ship-owner’s belief (whether or not the ship makes the voyage safely).
It is “wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing
doubts and avoiding investigation” because:
(i) Doing so “weaken[s] our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially
and fairly weighing evidence.”
(ii) Overtime this leads to “a credulous character.”
(iii) Through our interaction with others we spread these modes of thought and
then society is damaged. “The danger to society is not merely that it
should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should
become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into
them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”
Consider that you must often rely on the testimony or expertise of others in forming your
own beliefs. Ask yourself: Given that fact, do I think it’s a good thing that people develop
a habit of believing whatever is easiest?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Clifford"s the ethics of belief (not in our textbook) Evidentialism (clifford"s main thesis): it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. What matters when it comes to the rightness or wrongness of holding a given belief is not whether the belief is true or false, but whether we have the right to hold the belief. Consider the ship-owner"s belief (whether or not the ship makes the voyage safely). It is wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing doubts and avoiding investigation because: (i) (ii) (iii) Doing so weaken[s] our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence. Through our interaction with others we spread these modes of thought and then society is damaged. Consider that you must often rely on the testimony or expertise of others in forming your own beliefs.
