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"...It is wrong always, everywhere, and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence" (295).
According to Clifford, it is
Then we also have good reason--and a moral responsibility--to patiently investigate whether we have sufficient evidence for those beliefs.
"No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe" (293).
We thus have a responsibility to challenge and investigate not only others' beliefs but also our own beliefs.
"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 in question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it; the life of that man is one long sin against mankind" (295).
When are our beliefs justified?
What conditions must they meet in order for them to be justified?
Do different kinds of beliefs have different justification conditions?
For each scientific claim, we should consider its:
These beliefs and inferences are "less complete and exact" than our scientific beliefs (308).
As such, we should consider:
We must take into account the person's:
According to Clifford, it is morally wrong--not simply epistemically irresponsible--to maintain a belief without sufficient evidence for that belief.
"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.
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.
It is wrong in all cases to believe on insufficient evidence; and where it is presumption to doubt and to investigate, there it is worse than presumption to believe" (309).
Do you think that conspiracy theories are the result of too much doubt or too much credulity? Moreover, is there a morally relevant difference between a conspiracy theory and a conspiracy?