William Clifford Summary

It is often said that people are what they believe. Philosopher William Clifford would not only agree with this statement, but provides context to why he argues that it is wrong to believe something without sufficient evidence. In his perspective, the beliefs people hold have power over the people they are and the people that these beliefs are shared with. The consequences can be, or in his view, are always harmful. He uses the example of a shipowner allowing an unsafe ship to set sail, as he trusts his own intuition over justified doubts about its safety. Despite truly believing the ship was safe and not intending any harm, the ship still perished in the sea. Clifford sees this as one of multiple justifications for his stance. His main argument
This can be applied to simple, everyday situations, such as thoughts regarding the outcome of a big exam, as well as on a more drastic measure, such as thoughts regarding the outcome of a disease or sickness. The first scenario is played out through a similar experiment Stanford conducted. They studied the academic performance of math students in San Francisco elementary schools. They concluded that positive attitudes may have led to the increased utilization of the hippocampus, leading to better processing and retrieval. As a result, improvements in learning and ability could be seen (Lang et. al). This does not align with Clifford’s assertion that unfounded belief is always harmful. Positive thinking clearly does not mean one will absolutely do better if employed, but it does not rule out the possibility. Due to the inflexibility of Clifford’s argument, it already falls victim to this response. To drive the point even further, serious diseases and illnesses are not exempt from the benefits of optimism. The American Journal of Epidemiology published a study searching for a link between optimism and the progression of serious health issues. They concluded, that the statistics showed a strong association between increased optimism and decreased risks of mortality. This applied to even serious causes of death, such as cancer, stroke and heart disease (Kim et. al). They did not fail to mention that this optimism ultimately led to healthier life choices, evident in diet, decrease in smoking and increase in sleep. However, that is just the point. Admittedly, optimism alone will not have much impact, but if this leads to motivation to do more for one’s condition, it has positive effects. No matter how impossible or dark a situation seemed, neither the students or patients studied succumbed to negativity. This positivity did not have evidence