Laying aside, then, such tradition as is handed on without testing by successive generations, let us consider that which is truly built up out of the common experience of mankind. After these disclosures the inhabitants of that country looked upon the members of the agitating society, not only as persons whose judgment was to be distrusted, but also as no longer to be counted honourable men. . Our lives are guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes. He offers two examples of beliefs and subsequent actions based upon intuition, induction, personal conviction, and the stifling of doubts, rather than evidence and factual information. Clifford seems simply to presume that epistemic duty is a species of ethical duty. Whereas the acceptance of the spectroscopic method as trustworthy has enriched us not only with new metals, which is a great thing, but with new processes of investigation, which is vastly greater. We may believe the statement of another person, when there is reasonable ground for supposing that he knows the matter of which he speaks, and that he is speaking the truth so far as he knows it. The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat; he lives in the bosom of this his family, and it is no marvel if he should become even as they are. I cannot be sure, in the first place, that the celestial visitor is not a figment of my own mind, and that the information did not come to me, unknown at the time to my consciousness, through some subtle channel of sense. This is ironic, as the entire excerpt discusses making credible accusations and researching prior to blaming. Let us first take care to distinguish a kind of tradition which especially requires to be examined and called in question, because it especially shrinks from inquiry. By this testing and discussion not only has practice been purified and made more beneficent, but the very conception of beneficence has been made wider and wiser. That it is right to be beneficent is matter of immediate personal experience; for when a man retires within himself and there finds something, wider and more lasting than his solitary personality, which says, I want to do right, as well as, I want to do good to man, he can verify by direct observation that one instinct is founded upon and agrees fully with the other. It is in this way that the result becomes common property, a right object of belief, which is a social affair and matter of public business. The Duty of Inquiry: Standard Form. It is known to medical observers that solitude and want of food are powerful means of producing delusion and of fostering a tendency to mental disease. He did not say its ok by any means, in fact he went in-depth about how we create this false illusion in our minds to justify our dishonesty. The fact that believers have found joy and peace in believing gives us the right to say that the doctrine is a comfortable doctrine, and pleasant to the soul; but it does not give us the right to say that it is true. Before the ship sailed, however, he succeeded in overcoming these melancholy reflections. According to Clifford, pursuit of this evidence is the necessary duty of all persons before taking action on their beliefs, since thought is the seed of action and there is no human action which does not directly affect others, ultimately affecting the whole of humanity. If we are to trust the accounts of his early followers, he believed himself to have come upon earth with a divine and cosmic mission to set rolling the wheel of the law. It is not only the leader of men, statesmen, philosopher, or poet, that owes this bounden duty to mankind. For example when we see things that are wrong and for some reason we feel that it is ok because we come up with unworthy reasons to support us in our blurred vision. From certain observations made with the spectroscope, we infer the existence of hydrogen in the sun. All Rights Reserved. 3) SO action upon this belief must be wrong. Later, in paragraph 13, Clifford cautions against the false sense of power from knowledge unjustly earned. Whether the medicine was propitiated or not there are no means of verifying, but the cattle are gone. They were accused of wresting the laws of their country in such a way as to remove children from the care of their natural and legal guardians; and even of stealing them away and keeping them concealed from their friends and relations. But if my chemist tells me that an atom of oxygen has existed unaltered in weight and rate of vibration throughout all time I have no right to believe this on his authority, for it is a thing which he cannot know without ceasing to be man. Could such a man speak falsely about solemn things? Sincerity does not alone fulfill the duties implied by the process of rational belief formation. (LogOut/ It is found that the, Other qualities of bodies are connected with simple energy of motion and energy of position. Is a physical force, such as the attraction of earth, analogous to our "exertion of force" in muscular work? Is not his word to be believed in when he testifies of heavenly things? The duty of inquiry Apr 16th, 2007 | By Ophelia Benson Category: Notes and Comment Blog I've just re-read W K Clifford's 'The Ethics of Belief'. Cliffords argument that everyone has the opportunity and universal duty of questioning all beliefs appears to be stable and well founded; however it is flawed. Is it possible to doubt and to test it? Namely this: the character of Mohammed is excellent evidence that he was honest and spoke the truth so far as he knew it; but it is no evidence at all that he knew what the truth was. In what cases, then, let us ask in the first place, is the testimony of a man unworthy of belief? The Biden administration's special envoy for Iran has stepped aside from his duties pending a review of his security clearance by U.S. authorities. William Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief, Section I: The Duty of Inquiry" William Cliffords general claim is that no one should ever believe anything without investigating or researching previous evidence. For example, he states members at a church believe what the pastors tell them to about Jesus. Why Presuming Innocence is Not a Bayesian Prior, Medical Intuition, Capacity and Measurement. 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. These doubts preyed upon his mind, and made him unhappy; he thought that perhaps he ought to have her thoroughly overhauled and refitted, even though this should put him at great expense. According to Clifford, pursuit of this evidence is the necessary duty of all persons before taking action on their beliefs, since thought Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. The validity of this argument is valid because the conclusion follows from the premises, both the premises and conclusion go hand in hand. First, no doubt, we should be tempted to take exception against his view of the character of the Prophet and the uniformly beneficial influence of Islam: before we could go with him altogether in these matters it might seem that we should have to forget many terrible things of which we have heard or read. Let us alter the case a little, and suppose that the ship was not unsound after all; that she made her voyage safely, and many others after it. Cliffords overall argument for the duty of inquiry is strong, but if the human conscience cannot be universally trusted as a steadfast moral compass and predictable decision-making tool, then his particular invocation of in foro conscientiae makes for an unpersuasive and, therefore, an inconclusive supporting argument. Clifford is playing both sides of the fence in this premise: appealing to women that can sympathize with hard working women and the influence that women had or the lack thereof on society. In like manner, if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. William Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief, Section I: The Duty of Inquiry" Nanai Maui February 18, 2020 Uncategorized Standard Form: These people are doing bad things They investigate but find nothing but innocence Later to find out they were guilty Maybe if you listen to us the first time this wouldn't have happened With Chapter V. my task has been by no means light. It leaves us bare and powerless where we thought that we were safe and strong. Are we then bound to believe that nature is absolutely and universally uniform? Energy of position is quite a different thing. We dot just behave some way out of no where we think about it and we wonder what we should do or will do at the moment. These statements about our character and judgment are leading up to the conclusion. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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. We have no occasion to go to La Salette, or to Central Africa, or to Lourdes, for examples of immoral and debasing superstition. This is why we ought not to do evil, that good may come; for at any rate this great evil has come, that we have done evil and are made wicked thereby. It involves nerve and muscle, which we know not to be present in the simpler cases, Is mind a force? Are we to doubt the word of a man so great and so good? [Energy of position, like force, may be said to exist any point of space, whether a body is there or not.] (LogOut/ We dont just do something for no reason at all, some thinking has to be done before an action can occur by someone. The question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of his belief, not the matter of it; not what it was, but how he got it; not whether it turned out to be true or false, but whether he had a right to believe on such evidence as was before him. But if there is any special reason to suspect the character of the persons who wrote or transmitted certain books, the case becomes altered. So, although the argument is valid it is not very persuasive, making it difficult to determine whether it is sound or whether it should be used at all to support his greater argument. Abstract This chapter about the ethics of belief discusses the duty of inquiry, weight of authority, and the limits of inference. William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) English mathematician and philosopher "The Ethics of Belief," Part 1 "The Duty of Inquiry," Lecture, London (11 Apr 1876) ( Source ) Previous Post Next Post 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. THE DUTY OF INQUIRY A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant ship. What shall we say of that authority, more venerable and august than any individual witness, the time-honoured tradition of the human race? The man would not have been innocent, he would only have been not found out. So that here again it is the Prophets knowledge of human nature, and his sympathy with it, that are verified; not his divine inspiration or his knowledge of theology. Then we may be glad, not that I have learned secrets by which I am safer and stronger, but that we men have got mastery over more of the world; and we shall be strong, not for ourselves but in the name of Man and his strength. If an event really happened which was not a part of the uniformity of nature, it would have two properties: no evidence could give the right to believe it to any except those whose actual, In March 1879 Clifford died at Madeira; six years afterwards a posthumous work is for the first time placed before the public. Duty of Inquiry (Clifford) everyone has duty to inquire truth of beliefs. The duty of inquiry October 15, 2018 ifeellikesaulsthoughts Leave a comment William Clifford wrote The Ethics of Belief which shows a lot philosophical ideas by Clifford. For if there is no hydrogen in the sun, the spectroscopethat is to say, the measurement of rates of vibrationmust be an uncertain guide in recognising different substances; and consequently it ought not to be used in chemical analysisin assaying, for exampleto the great saving of time, trouble, and money. He knew that she was old, and not well built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Mr. R. Tucker searched Clifford's note books for Karl Pearson and sent him the above quote, in Clifford's handwriting. 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. duty of inquiry. Internet Infidels. Im sure that just as today, not every working class man is married, and if he is , this doesnt necessarily mean that his wife is hard workingor even that the couple has children. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. It is desecrated when given to unproved and unquestioned statements, for the solace and private pleasure of the believer; to add a tinsel splendour to the plain straight road of our life and display a bright mirage beyond it; or even to drown the common sorrows of our kind by a self-deception which allows them not only to cast down, but also to degrade us. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. When a poet finds that he has to move a strange new world which his predecessors have not moved; when, nevertheless, he catches fire from their flashes, arms from their armoury. If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing itthe life of that man is one long sin against mankind. what is the duty of inquiry according to clifford? He would dismiss from his mind all ungenerous suspicions about the honesty of builders and contractors. The Final Rule and Procedural Guidance provide that Commerce will maintain an annual inquiry service list for each order or suspended investigation, and any interested party submitting a scope ruling application or request for circumvention inquiry shall serve a copy of the application or request on the persons on the annual inquiry service . I. I have accordingly introduced a few pages on the laws of motion. Not one jot. This sense of power is the highest and best of pleasures when the belief on which it is founded is a true belief, and has been fairly earned by investigation. In my opinion, there were no fallacies in this argument. It is an assumption of uniformity in nature, and can only be checked by comparison with many similar assumptions which we have to make in other such cases. We may believe what goes beyond our experience, only when it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that what we do not know is like what we know. THE DUTY OF INQUIRY A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. But you cannot have in nature an absolutely unstable equilibrium [. Let us suppose, then, that I, like Mohammed, go into desert places to fast and pray; what things can happen to me which will give me the right to believe that I am divinely inspired? Certainly, we want to know a little more before this inference can be justified; and fortunately we do know this. If an individual is a part of another individuals environment in any way, shape or form, the first individual either feeds or takes away from a stereotype, bias, or preconceived notion that the second individual has. We may believe what goes beyond our experience, only when it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that what we do not know is like what we know. And there can be no grounds for supposing that a man knows that which we, without ceasing to be men, could not be supposed to verify. A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. And if we admit for the sake of argument (for it seems that we cannot do more) that the progress made by Moslem nations in certain cases was really due to the system formed and sent forth into the world by Mohammed, we are not at liberty to conclude from this that he was inspired to declare the truth about things which we cannot verify.
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the duty of inquiry clifford
