"The Will to Believe" is a lecture by William James, first published in 1896,[1] which defends, in certain cases, the adoption of a belief without prior evidence of its truth. Very often, peoples convictions and opinions lead to the discovery of data that can eventually establish the truth or falsity of these convictions. Is It Wrong to Believe Without Evidence After this is all said and done, even our most cherished beliefs need to be proffered for testing, questioning, and evaluation. A matter of faith, the source of being trust-worthy and responsible (for the crew of a ship one owns) is used immorally and selfishly, to not check the sea-worthiness of the vessel. William Jamess counter-arguments are ingenious and thought-provoking, but I dont find them ultimately convincing. A young man wants to ask a young woman out for a date. That is no way to trust in God. The ship owner overcomes his doubts for the sake of self-interest. Those that fit with the world will lead to successful action, those that do not agree with the world will entail actions that lead to failure (e.g. An example of this how beliefs can impact the choices people make can be seen in when we look at vaccines and the pandemic. Clifford WebIn the two supposed cases which have been considered, it has been judged wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing doubts and avoiding An owner of a ship keeps sailing it and risking all the lives of the crew because he does not want to check if it is still sea-worthy. William Cliffords famous essay The Ethics of Belief is aimed at showing that it is immoral to believe something without sufficient evidence because unjustified opinions can pose a significant threat to others. The question for traditional religious believers, of course, is whether James is really an ally at all. And so the iconic opposition between Clifford and James admits of reconciliation. Very often, these decisions can be based on intuition or impressions produced by other people. James then argues that like belief in one's own ability to accomplish a difficult task, religious faith can also be rational even if one at the time lacks evidence for the truth of one's religious belief. Ill consider what you said., I never thought of it that way. Its good to come across someone who finds the CliffordJames debate as fascinating as I do. Clifford Although James does not here explain the way in which the truth or evidence regarding religious belief depends upon our first having religious belief, he does argue that it is a part of the religious belief itself that its own truth or the evidence of its own truth depends upon our first believing it. To Jamess argument I would also add that there is a philosophical sense and a religious sense of belief, which are very different. Moreover, they may deliberately disregard the evidence that contradicts their hypothesis. IvyPanda. If we dont understand why were correct, or at the very least admit that we just got lucky and guessed correctly, then we will never create a framework that helps us to be successful consistently. To turn Cliffords argument against him: how can someone not believe in God, when the whole universe exists as evidence. [citation needed]. In section VIII, James finally moves beyond what he considers mere preliminaries. James gives self-fulfilling beliefs as one example of such beliefs: Do you like me or not?for example. James' "The Will to Believe" consists of introductory remarks followed by ten numbered but not titled sections. Moreover, his essay clearly highlights the need to search for empirical evidence or at least some confirmation of a persons opinions. 5 The Ethics of Belief W.K. William James and the Forced Wager The next major revision was designed by S. Abbas Raza, building upon the earlier look, and coded byDumky de Wildein 2013. Clifford shows how the owner is using trust to undermine trust-worthiness and with that he questions the value of trust itself. The ship owner values his money much more than the lives of those, whom he should have served. We must remember that these feelings of our duty about either truth or error are in any case only expressions of our passional life. It rather is simply the belief that the more eternal things are best. This is the belief that the will-to-believe doctrine aspires to defend. James defends its value in decisions that are live, unavoidable, and momentous. Not to choose an option brings about the loss of the truth or good that could have been experienced. Here I am putting James into my own words. The verification of this faith is experienced in life and the evidence for it becomes real, because belief has the power to change a life into the promises that are believed. 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. Shall we espouse and endorse it?" Clifford (18451879) argues that the answer is no. He claims that it is wrong In some cases, people have act on a certain belief, and only in this way, they can gather empirical evidence substantiating this belief. Secondly, peoples relations with one another are often based on beliefs without sufficient evidence. However, since his essay is quite obviously a polemic against religious belief, it seems fairly clear that Clifford did not believe that religious beliefs could be supported by sufficient evidence. WebJames argues that we may be justified in adopting a belief even if we don't have enough prior evidence in support of it, and in some cases, 1) we may only have access to One can avoid making a decision to go on a trip until it is too late to go. Additionally, medical workers have to test a drug on human subjects, even though that they cannot ensure that it is completely safe. He does not, of course, advocate ignoring or denying real evidence. WebSociety crumble if widespread acceptance of belief on insufficient evidence 4. If one starts from the assumption that God exists, that Providence or the ultimate is a significant reality, or a significant part of reality, then I would agree that the ship owner appears guilty of a misuse of trust trusting in something which should not be trusted in that way, but deserves to be trusted in a different way. This allowed those in charge to point out that there were not a lot of prominent women in as proof that this was true, all the while ignoring the fact that women were denied opportunities to make any contributions, thus creating a self reinforcing belief. However, this reply to both objections is not open to James since he explicitly claims that his will to believe doctrine does not depend on his pragmatist theory of truth. "[2] This principle can also be found in a slight variation, often called Clifford's Other Principle: "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to ignore evidence that is relevant to his beliefs, or to dismiss relevant evidence in a facile way."[3]. One that I struggle with from time to time is that Im not worthy of being loved because I lose my temper. It is a different thing. 14 At this point it would be interesting to discover what Clifford meant by sufficient evidence. Really the owner of the ship, which sank, was misusing trust in order not to be trust-worthy. "Belief without Prior Evidence." In this case special attention should be paid to the concept of trust or reliance on someone elses good intentions, expertise, friendship, or loyalty. William James (1842-1910), on the other hand, a philosopher and psychologist, took a WebCliffords view holds that all rational beliefs must be proved fromevidence. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [3], 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. It has taken a lot of hard work for our society to move past these ideas, and we still have a long way to go. This example is one that plays off belief against self-interest. . Perhaps this sense is also right in terms of laws that are broken and evidence for guilt pronounced for the likes of that ship-owner. WebClifford could respond affirming that, even if there are beneficial consequences following beliefs upon insufficient evidence, that proves neither that we are fulfilling our epistemic duties nor that the belief in question is rational, given that to justify them James brings to light only the passionate nature of that who believes. Epicycle upon epicycle of subsidiary hypothesis will have to be invoked to give to the discrepant terms a temporary appearance of squaring with each other; but at last even this resource will fail. "Belief without Prior Evidence." Where did I learn this? Cliffords scientific and skeptical suspension of belief is not helpful in such cases. IvyPanda. He wrote a well thought out essay called The Ethics of Belief, in which he discusses how it is immoral to believe something without evidence, even if you end up being correct in your belief. If you like what we do, please consider making a donation. We may regard the chase for truth as paramount, and the avoidance of error as secondary; or we may, on the other hand, treat the avoidance of error as more imperative, and let truth take its chance. It is like a general informing his soldiers that it is better to keep out of battle forever than to risk a single wound. WebThe Ethics of Belief written by W.K. Web13 W. K. Clifford The Ethics of Belief, 552. https://ivypanda.com/essays/belief-without-prior-evidence-2/, IvyPanda. Also stop by the website at www.stoic.coffee where you can sign up for our newsletter, and buy some great looking shirts and hoodies at the Stoic Coffee Shop. What does Clifford say about belief without evidence? - Quora We all like to think that we are wise, that our opinions are well thought out, and that were smart enough to spot when we have inconsistent beliefs. WebIn The Ethics of Belief William Clifford argues for an evidentialist point of view (i.e. Maybe we believe we dont deserve to be treated respectfully, because were been treated poorly by others. Clifford believes that this behavior is unethical because it can pose a threat to the wellbeing of other people. Overall, these examples indicate that people can act on unsubstantiated belief and sometimes they can find evidence that support or refute their convictions only in this way. WebAccording to James, the following are genuine options not settled by the evidence: Moral questions (viz., the decision whether or not to have moral beliefs). The beliefs we have about the world guide our choices and actions. Arguably, Jamesian reconstructed religious belief is not religious belief at all. Second, Clifford [1] From Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger, editors, Philosophy of Religion, Third Edition, (Oxford University Press, 2007), page 109. If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. In order to explain this viewpoint, Clifford describes a situation when a person can convince oneself that something is true without even trying to obtain any evidence (Clifford unpaged). WebJames Vs Clifford. Still, despite these limitations, the work of this philosopher should be considered by modern scholars. Moral decisions, for example, are made when two conflicting values present themselves and a choice has to be made between them. Therefore, the main task is to find a proof showing that a theorem or conjecture is true in every possible case. You had no right to come to the conclusion that your friend had cheated on the test. Nevertheless, one cannot say that people always act unethically when they rely on their intuition. Once we are willing to be okay with being wrong, then we can take the time to ask more questions about our belief. There is no way to prove Premise 1 from our sensory experiencesand self-evident truths. As an example, James argues that it can be rational to have unsupported faith in one's own ability to accomplish tasks that require confidence. James takes believing a proposition to consist in acting as if it were true, so if James considers testing a proposition as acting as if it were true to see if it leads to successful action, then James would be committed to seeing an act of hypothesis adoption as necessarily an act of belief adoption as well. Is it wrong to believe without sufficient evidence? W.K. Similarly, a person has to rely on the loyalty and integrity of his/her friends, colleagues, or relatives. The ship-owner values his money more than the lives of his crew, a good indication why regulation is necessary. And how do try to avoid this? That is, Jamess strategy for defending religious belief is simply to transform it into something else, something less theological. There are plenty of beliefs that we adopt because our brains try to make sense of the world around us. Religious beliefs would constitute another example. So far, we have been discussing the manner in which Clifford argues that it is sometimes impermissible to believe something when one lacks adequate evidence. Understanding the source of this belief can help you be aware of conflicts of interest from others and yourself. Based on the evidence you had, you made an assumption; you guessed. (2022, November 30). What evidence is available to support this belief? Thanks again for listening. Often, just asking this question alone can help us see that a belief does not serve us, and we can work on letting it go. Copyright 2023 - IvyPanda is operated by, God is responsible for the continuation of evil, The Clifford And James Philosophies On Beliefs, Cliffords vs. Jamess Knowledge Theories, "The Ethics of Belief" by Clifford and "The Will to Believe" by James, "The Ethics of Belief" by William K. Clifford, Voluntaristic Faith: Readings by Clifford and James, Clifford's Evidentialism vs. Wager & Kierkegaards Non-Evidentialism, Peoples Refuse as a Source of Information, Max Weber and Clifford Geertz Views on Religion, An Individuals Belief is a Private Matter, Hicks Theory of the Attitude Towards God and Sin, Clifford/James on Whether and When It Is Ok to Believe without Sufficient Evidence, The Ethics of Belief: Based on Evidence or Inquiry. Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. 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.. It was just by chance that you ended up on the right side. You might be interested in my own articles on the subject. No clickbait, no fake news, not just entertainment, but depth and breadth something increasingly hard to find on the internet today. James proposes one option: if I stand aloof, and refuse to budge an inch until I have some objective evidence, until you have done something apt . Although it may indeed happen that when we believe the truth A, we escape as an incidental consequence from believing the falsehood B, it hardly ever happens that by merely disbelieving B we necessarily believe A. First, Clifford argues that because the evidence is not sufficient to show that belief in God is true, one should not believe. 30 November. Belief in this arena refers to trusting and committing oneself completely to the One who requires our ultimate concern, to use Tillichs phrase. You and I certainly did not create it. Clifford makes an analogy between stealing something and believing something without evidence, making both equally evil. It matters not to an empiricist from what quarter a hypothesis may come to him: he may have acquired it by fair means or by foul; passion may have whispered or accident suggested it; but if the total drift of thinking continues to confirm it, that is what he means by its being true.". W K Clifford Ethics Of Belief Internet Infidels Michael Polanyi argues that personal knowledge is very different from detached and indifferent ways of knowing. The reason James takes himself as able to rationally justify positions often not believed to be verifiable under any method, is how important he thinks believing something can be for the verifying of that belief. It should be pointed out that very often one cannot gain sufficient evidence. This is the person I have looked for a long time, the true genius. Believing without evidence is always morally wrong | Aeon Ideas James concludes this section by asking us to agree "that wherever there is no forced option, the dispassionately judicial intellect with no pet hypothesis, saving us, as it does from dupery at any rate, ought to be our ideal.". Charles Sanders Peirce ends his 1908 paper "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God" complaining generally about what other philosophers had done with pragmatism, and ends with a criticism specifically of James' will to believe: It seems to me a pity they [pragmatists like James, Schiller] should allow a philosophy so instinct with life to become infected with seeds of death in such notions as that of the unreality of all ideas of infinity and that of the mutability of truth, and in such confusions of thought as that of active willing (willing to control thought, to doubt, and to weigh reasons) with willing not to exert the will (willing to believe). It is interpersonal and relational as well. Indeed, it seems that Jamesian religious belief is in the end no different from Cliffordian non-belief. Your friend is an average student, and on a big test, they get a perfect score. From Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger, editors. Such a And it seems as if in answering such a question as this we might proceed exactly as does the physical philosopher in testing an hypothesis. To a great extent, this critique relies on the ideas of William James who discusses the nature of faith in his lecture The Will to Believe. There have been plenty of beliefs, ideas, and theories taught in schools or treated as common sense that were taken as fact. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. They think because they were successful once they know how to be successful again. Without Evidence or Argume copy They disagree on the question of whether religious belief, given the lack of evidence for it, is ever intellectually responsible. For example, in the following passage James utilizes his doctrine to justify a belief that "this is a moral world": It cannot then be said that the question, "Is this a moral world?" For them the evidence is absolutely sufficient, only it makes the other way. WebDefinition 1 / 85 Falsification principle - anything that you believe if you can't state the grounds of what you believe then it is just based on emotions - Converted from theism to deism before dying, in a desire to "go where the evidence leads" - Parable of the Garden Click the card to flip Flashcards Learn Test Created by ZakkTrigger On the one hand, it might seem that Cliffords evidentialism is far too demanding. Without Evidence Or Argument Clark Analysis Well deflect and try to blame others for their shortcomings. The most powerful of them involves a ship owner who believes contrary to his evidence that his ship is seaworthy. 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 upon our character for ever. James begins section VII by stating that there is "one more point, small but important, and our preliminaries are done." The previous faith on my part in your liking's existence is in such cases what makes your liking come. professional specifically for you? But my as if is unsatisfactory. We have a duty to be well-informed by the evidence not only to ourselves and our own character (Clifford thinks that if you believe based on your passions and wishful thinking, it will infect your character, an interesting anticipation of what later would become virtue epistemology). In section IX, James moves to investigate whether there are areas of belief where belief without evidence would be justified. As weve seen cases of the Delta variant climbing higher over the past few months, it comes because of this distrust. (William James, "The Sentiment of Rationality"), The doctrine James developed in his "The Will to Believe" lecture was later extended by his protg F.C.S. Schiller in his lengthy essay "Axioms as Postulates". Without Evidence The religious hypothesis is less a view about Gods nature and existence, and more a view about the place of hope in our lives. Request 1983 Luther Lectures! Well avoid admitting were wrong by discounting evidence that we dont like. Both agree that the evidence for God is weak, and certainly not sufficient to justify religious belief. The Will to Believe. For example, in mathematics, a statement cannot be called true, even when it is supported by thousands of observations or empirical tests. He argues that he is no skeptic, yet this protest seems flimsy; in any case, James certainly takes Clifford to be a skeptic. James begins section X with the thesis that he takes himself to have already proven: "In truths dependent on our personal action, then, faith based on desire is certainly a lawful and possibly an indispensable thing." He cannot imagine any one questioning its binding force. St. Paul puts it this way: faith becomes active in love. The analogy is of course, for the good that religious belief brings the believer. The Ethics Of Belief William Clifford Analysis | ipl.org This is completely free of charge for everyone. Please fill out the form below to get our email with all the posts from the previous 24 hours, which is sent out a bit after midnight (NY City time) each day. Not so are victories either over enemies or over nature gained. All Rights Reserved. First, Clifford argues that because the evidence is not sufficient to show that belief in God is true, one should not believe. Are there scientifically rigorous studies, or experts in this area, that can help me learn more about it? Explains the idea of belief and moral righteousness by coming up with the conclusion that it is morally incorrect to believe in a claim with insufficient evidence or to create a claim without sufficient evidence. I think one of the best ways to start is to get comfortable with this is practice incorporating some of the following phrases into our language. Whatever the name, the doctrine always concerned the rationality of believing without evidence in certain instances. Such beliefs bring the realities their assertions refer to into existence. He may be critical of many of his desires and fears, but this fear he slavishly obeys. More important is how we got there. A New Ethics for the Total Person (Unconscious and Shadow Side as Well); not just the Ego over the RationalSelf . I cannot do so for this plain reason, that a rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those kinds of truth were really there, would be an irrational rule. This is the main claim that he makes in his work. In The Will to Believe, William James argues that we have a right to believe in some cases, when supporting evidence may be inadequate. "[2] In section III, however, James qualifies his endorsement of this criticism of Pascal's Wager by arguing that "it is only our already dead hypotheses that our willing nature is unable to bring to life again." Would that bit of good luck diminish the guilt of the shipowner? However, the example provided by William James indicates that this process can be reversed. Clifford Cliffords essay appears on pages 104-110. I always found the idea of blind faith troubling, because it makes abuse of power very easy, and we have seen this happen time after time. One of the main issues is the need to prove ones convictions by providing logical or empirical evidence. When we reach the correct answer but have an invalid process, we have not learned how to make better decisions, so we actually do ourselves a disservice. To take a trivial illustration: just as a man who in a company of gentlemen made no advances, asked a warrant for every concession, and believed no one's word without proof, would cut himself off by such churlishness from all the social rewards that a more trusting spirit would earnso here, one who should shut himself up in snarling logicality and try to make the gods extort his recognition willy-nilly, or not get it at all, might cut himself off forever from his only opportunity of making the gods' acquaintance. It is never lawful to stifle a doubt. he writes. What if the emigrants got to their destination safely? Thats just evidentialism. You can use them for inspiration, an insight into a particular topic, a handy source of reference, or even just as a template of a certain type of paper. My reading of Clifford is that hes primarily talking about belief, not faith or trust. The Ethics of Belief. For example, for centuries, women have been treated as if they were mentally inferior to men in science, art, literature, music, and many other fields. In particular, he could have pointed out that many researchers can easily twist facts so that they could fit their theories. It is a gift we have received from above. You had no evidence to reason through that your friend had actually cheated. On the whole, such situations are familiar to people who study natural or social sciences. On Cliffords Argument Surely this man is blameworthy. ", James ends section VI by stressing what he finds to be the "great difference" merit of the empiricist way over the absolutist way: "The strength of his system lies in the principles, the origin, the terminus a quo [the beginning point] of his thought; for us the strength is in the outcome, the upshot, the terminus ad quem [the end result]. The Luther Decade (2008-2017) is now over. Clifford answers, Not one jot. Why? 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. Please find a reply here: Cliffords razor: reply to Peter Krey. Theyll attribute their success to something else, such as their own brilliance or the superiority of their product, and are unwilling to attribute it to the luck of circumstance that broke in their favor. Where we run into trouble, is that most of us are brought up not to question the world around us. This is IvyPanda's free database of academic paper samples. Without Evidence
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