It Is Wrong Always, Everywhere, and for Anyone, To Believe Anything Upon Insufficient Evidence, Essay Example

William Clifford in ‘The Ethics of Belief” raised a very important issue of human perception. His argumentation was inductive and thus understandable, so it seems to me to be cogent. I do agree with the main idea of the first part of the Clifford’s essay which is summed up “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence”. The key term in this phrase is belief as it influences human process of decision making greatly.

In vast majority of cases it is hardly impossible to avoid bias in decision making. Things that usually influence human judgment are personal convictions, interests, and beliefs, as well as facts and relevant evidence. Usually we involve our feelings when the result of some action is important to us. But it cannot be denied that we live in a one big society and everything that at first sight concerns only one person may in fact be crucial for one or more others. An example of such occasion was described in “The Ethics of Belief” as a ship owner case. Though Clifford’s idea of the one decision influencing the mankind may sound exaggerated, his essay provides an example of culpable negligence. Ship owner found it comfortable to assume that his ship was seaworthy and doomed absolutely innocent people to death. It is just an example of one person influencing others. What is essential to understand is the fact that there are no things that don’t matter – as Clifford pointed out, “no belief held by one man, however seemingly trivial the belief, and however obscure the believer, is ever actually insignificant or without its effect on the fate of mankind”. Thus things we hold dear, respect and claim to be morally right are taught to each and every generation, and every single person is important for this transfer. So the first premise is that every decision and every person influence their further lives and lives of other people, so wrong belief based on insufficient evidence can have unexpected effects.

Beliefs are an indivisible part of our perception of world. And what we base them on matters not only for outer world, but for us, too. How can the ship owner live calmly when he is guilty of the death of the people? Or those who ostracized professors if they have their reputation spoiled? If we have no clear reasons except our convictions for some action we have no reasons at all. Even white lie can be harmful because everybody has his or her own values; what seems to be salvation for one person may be a cold comfort for another. White lie is an attempt to help that is based on personal belief. What about other decisions that supposedly can affect many people? Beliefs can based on biased, obscure, or not investigated facts, are like houses built on thin and faulty piles; though they seem to be not that far from truth hey will crash in the long run. All beliefs of one person are so tightly interwoven that one that has no evidential support can distort the whole perception. So given the speculations above I sum up that lack of proper evidence is inexcusable when it comes to forming beliefs; and as our life in its course offers innumerable changes to our beliefs we must be conscious about every one.

My argument is sound because essay “The Ethics of Belief” is based on inductive reasoning from exemplifying cases to general things; even though his argumentation alludes to examples, I prove that his generalization was not erroneous and makes sense in the context of everyday life.

Works Cited

Clifford, William K. “The Ethics of Belief”. The Secular Web Library. June 26, 2009 <http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/w_k_clifford/ethics_of_belief.html>