The Scientific Basis of Morals, and Other Essays: Viz.: Right and Wrong, The Ethics of Belief, The Ethics of ReligionClifford, William Kingdon
Philosophy
The Scientific Basis of Morals, and Other Essays: Viz.: Right and Wrong, The Ethics of Belief, The Ethics of Religion
Clifford, William Kingdon
Ethics
There is no practical danger that such consequences will ever follow
from scrupulous care and self-control in the matter of belief. Those
men who have most nearly done their duty in this respect have found
that certain great principles, and these most fitted for the guidance
of life, have stood out more and more clearly in proportion to the
care and honesty with which they were tested, and have acquired in
this way a practical certainty. The beliefs about right and wrong
which guide our actions in dealing with men in society, and the beliefs
about physical nature which guide our actions in dealing with animate
and inanimate bodies, these never suffer from investigation; they
can take care of themselves, without being propped up by 'acts of
faith,' the clamor of paid advocates, or the suppression of contrary
evidence. Moreover there are many cases in which it is our duty
to act upon probabilities, although the evidence is not such as to
justify present belief; because it is precisely by such action, and
by observation of its fruits, that evidence is got which may justify
future belief. So that we have no reason to fear lest a habit of
conscientious inquiry should paralyze the actions of our daily life.
But because it is not enough to say, 'It is wrong to believe on
unworthy evidence,' without saying also what evidence is worthy,
we shall now go on to inquire under what circumstances it is lawful
to believe on the testimony of others; and then, further, we shall
inquire more generally when and why we may believe that which goes
beyond our own experience, or even beyond the experience of mankind.
In what cases, then, let us ask in the first place, is the testimony
of a man unworthy of belief? He may say that which is untrue either
knowingly or unknowingly. In the first case he is lying, and his moral
character is to blame; in the second case he is ignorant or mistaken,
and it is only his knowledge or his judgment which is in fault. In
order that we may have the right to accept his testimony as ground for
believing what he says, we must have reasonable grounds for trusting
his veracity, that he is really trying to speak the truth so far as he
knows it; his knowledge, that he has had opportunities of knowing the
truth about this matter; and his judgment, that he has made proper use
of those opportunities in coming to the conclusion which he affirms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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