Clifford The Ethics Of Belief Summary

In the arguments done in the article on “The Ethics of Belief,” that’s written by Clifford he states 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 the shipowner, who goes for any repair to his own ship and overcomes his own doubts.He believed his ship was seaworthy. Then going through the expense of checking it and making the necessary repairs. This example plays off the belief against self-interest. The shipowner overcomes his doubts for the sake of self-interest. He then goes to collects the insurance money. The worst part is that while he gets his money he lets everyone else that was on that ship die at sea because the ship was proved to be unseaworthy. I do not think that many people realize how odd is Clifford’s argument of 'The Ethics of Belief' really is. Throughout the whole argument, he is
He who truly believes that which prompts him to an action has looked upon the action to lust after it, he has committed it already in his heart. If a belief is not realized in open deeds, it is stored up for the guidance of the future. It goes to make a part of that aggregate of beliefs which is the link between sensation and action at every moment of all our lives, and which is so organized and compacted together that no part of it can be isolated from the rest, but every new addition modifies the structure of the whole. No real belief, however trifling and fragmentary it may seem, is ever truly insignificant; it prepares us to receive more of it’s 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