The Ethics of Belief

Cliffords Claim:

1. All beliefs influence action in some way
2. Action based on unjustified beliefs causes harm directly
3. Actions based on unjustified beliefs promote credulity (which results in broad social ills)
4. C: Therefore, it is always wrong to hold unjustified beliefs

I believe that this argument shows validity in the sense that the premises or the claims about belief all lead to that fact that their is doubt in all beliefs of humans; this connection is logical. I also believe that this argument does have soundness as well. All the premises are true in the sense that all people do have beliefs or in a sense thoughts and opinions. People are not fully control, if so I think we would not consider them a person, and also no belief can be certain based on the fact that we are not in full control. Therefore, we must assume that there is some form of doubt whether thought or actually spoken. I believe Clifford’s argument shows practical significance at least in our world today. For example when Clifford mentions, “It is true that this duty is a hard one, and the doubt which comes out of it is often a very bitter thing. It leaves us bare and powerless where we thought that we were safe and strong. To know all about anything is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances.” (Clifford 5). This is a perfect example of the COVID-19 situation going on right now. So many people feeling a sense of powerlessness and uncertainty which leaves many bitter and a sense of feeling insecure and scared.

Another example I see in my life is every time I drive to school low on gas, I have some belief that I will get to school with gas left in my car. Fortunately, I have not run out of gas on my way to school…yet. Although I have made it, there is always some doubt or possibility that I will not make it to school, which is what Clifford mentions in his excerpt.

From looking at Cliffords arguments he does not appear to have any fallacies within his stances. I feel that Cliffords arguments are very sound due to the fact that it can easy see this is the lives of humans today. For example with politics, religion, and sports all these are very different but people do put lots of belief in such things. We can be certain of this because if someone really believes in a political party they will vote, maybe even put a sticker on their car. In addition with religion, if people truly believe in their religion we see that their lives are transformed by those beliefs and they are compelled to even sacrifice things that people might see as a BIG DEAL. Lastly with sports, we see the belief of sports in such a way that people will spend thousands of dollars to ditch the comfort of their couch to watch their favorite teams live and in person…talk about belief!

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