Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”.doc

Dr. Ari Santas’ Notes on Clifford and James on Religious Belief I. William Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief” The Shipowner doubts the safety of his ship this makes him uncomfortable (the discomfort of doubt) so, he stifles the doubt by convincing himself that the ship’s okay he does this by rationalizing by deceiving himself, he comes to sincerely believe that the ship is sound the ship goes down Guilty! despite the sincerity of his belief his belief was not a product of earnest investigation (how might it have been) he had no right to believe on the evidence before him Still Guilty even if the ship didn’t go down! he still let the ship go without honestly inquiring into its safety the act was wrong regardless of the consequences why? Consider selling prescription drugs without test them first Flying an airliner without check all the mechanisms The Island a place where a different sort of religion is taught—no original sin, no eternal punishment a suspicion gets abroad that this religion has been taught by unscrupulous means (stealing children, etc.) a group of people form a society to “inform” the public they do this without any evidence because they want to believe such a religion could only be learned in this way a commission finally investigates and finds there’s no evidence of these unscrupulous practices Guilty the society is guilty of being untrustworthy and dishonorable despite the sincerity of belief they had no right to believe on such evidence Still Guilty even if their suspicions turned out to be correct! the correctness was incidental—its still dishonorable  More Examples? think of cases where someone holds a belief because they want to or its to their advantage -Rebuilding my Subaru engine -oh, the crankshaft probably doesn’t need machining… -Space Shuttle disasters Belief and Action should we be held morally accountable for our beliefs? yes, because one cannot separate belief from action The Seeds of Action I believe it will rain today—how might tha