Honesty and inquiry: W.K. Clifford’s ethics of belief

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buir.contributor.authorFessenbecker, Patrick
dc.citation.epage818en_US
dc.citation.issueNumber4
dc.citation.spage797en_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber28
dc.contributor.authorNottelmann, N.en_US
dc.contributor.authorFessenbecker, Patricken_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-02-13T13:29:15Z
dc.date.available2020-02-13T13:29:15Z
dc.date.issued2020-07
dc.departmentProgram in Cultures, Civilization and Ideasen_US
dc.description.abstractW.K. Clifford is widely known for his emphatic motto that it is wrong, always everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. In fact, that dictum and Clifford’s condemnation of a scheming self-deceptive shipowner sum up how his ethics of belief is most often remembered and how it has been subsequently interpreted. In contrast to other recent interpretations, we argue that the motto is misleading as a guide to Clifford’s position. It is best understood as essentially a rhetorical flourish. Moreover, in important ways the scheming shipowner is not stereotypical of the kind of believer Clifford thought blameworthy. A careful study of Clifford’s various writings on the ethics of belief finally reveals him not to be an evidentialist in the Humean tradition. Rather, inspired by Charles Darwin’s work in moral psychology, he applied an evolutionary-functional virtue ethics to the doxastic realm. This perspective allows a fruitful examination of his engagement with contemporaries like Matthew Arnold. It also allows us to recognize him as a predecessor to modern attributionist accounts of blameworthy belief.en_US
dc.description.provenanceSubmitted by Evrim Ergin (eergin@bilkent.edu.tr) on 2020-02-13T13:29:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Honesty_and_inquiry_W.K._Clifford’s_ethics_of_belief.pdf: 1906892 bytes, checksum: 5745ec27c5dfac313b42a837cd35c385 (MD5)en
dc.description.provenanceMade available in DSpace on 2020-02-13T13:29:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Honesty_and_inquiry_W.K._Clifford’s_ethics_of_belief.pdf: 1906892 bytes, checksum: 5745ec27c5dfac313b42a837cd35c385 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-08en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/09608788.2019.1655389en_US
dc.identifier.eissn1469-3526
dc.identifier.issn0960-8788
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11693/53343
dc.language.isoEnglishen_US
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2019.1655389en_US
dc.source.titleBritish Journal for the History of Philosophyen_US
dc.subjectWilliam Kingdon Clifforden_US
dc.subjectCharles Darwinen_US
dc.subjectMatthew Arnolden_US
dc.subjectEthics of beliefen_US
dc.subjectEthics of religionen_US
dc.titleHonesty and inquiry: W.K. Clifford’s ethics of beliefen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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