William Clifford's The Ethics Of Beliefs

In the most basic sense evidentialism focuses on the justifications, beliefs, conclusions, and the evidence for each of these for any given person. William Clifford’s work, The Ethics of Beliefs, presents his principle of evidentialism and how one must judge the beliefs and justifications rather than consequences. Given Clifford’s definition, counter arguments regarding the necessity of consequences towards an individual’s action arise to invalidate Clifford’s claim. I will argue that despite the given argument Clifford’s evidentialism remains standing, because ultimately justifications cause the consequences. Clifford argues that the justification of a belief does not lie in the result of an action, but instead justification lies within …show more content…
Some beliefs are automatic from the senses such as if a light were to turn on in a room; one would believe that he or she is in a lighted room. Similarly, any belief can be justified at the given moment and not at a time in the future, take for instance an optical illusion. A road on a hot day looks as if there is water resting on top, and to the naked eye there exists water on the road. In that moment of time the belief would be justified given all known aspects. However, when approaching the supposed water, which turns out not to be water, the belief at that point in time would not be considered justified. Given the situation the result of the belief was out of the person’s control because of the given optical input. Continuing onward, taking the time to evaluate each belief becomes time consuming, energy depleting, and seemingly unnecessary for all involved. As such believing the immediate perception becomes the most convenient and understandable. The time it would take to consider each and every belief would detract from situations in which a conclusion or the belief becomes more dire; some beliefs ought to be more important than others. Justifying a wet road is much less serious than justifying stealing textbooks from the bookstore. If one tries to evaluate beliefs at all times, their ability to judge arguments will wear …show more content…
Given the information of both positions I concluded that Clifford’s claims triumph over the other because the means of a certain action are more valuable than the actual result. While it may seem that consequences are a necessary component the reasoning and justifications are more important because they may lead to the dreaded