William Clifford, The Ethics Of Belief - Veracity, Knowledge, and Judgement - Sadler's Lectures

William Clifford, The Ethics Of Belief - Veracity, Knowledge, and Judgement - Sadler's Lectures

From Sadler's Lectures by Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler

May 28, 2026 · 15 min

About this episode

This episode discusses William Clifford's essay on the ethics of belief and the criteria for assessing testimony.

This lecture discusses the William Clifford's 1877 essay "The Ethics Of Belief", in which he makes and argued for the central claim "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." It focuses on Clifford's criteria for determining when and whether we ought to give credence to the testimony of other people, especially those who have made assertions we cannot directly verify. He identifies three key qualities we can look for in these persons, namely: veracity, knowledge, and judgement, explains what they are, and applies them to some example cases. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Clifford's The Ethics of Belief - https://amzn.to/41WkkYA

People in this episode

Host: Gregory B. Sadler

Topics covered

  • ethics of belief
  • veracity
  • knowledge
  • judgement
  • testimony
  • evidence

Keywords

  • William Clifford
  • The Ethics Of Belief
  • veracity
  • knowledge
  • judgement
  • testimony
  • evidence

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Patreon, YouTube, PayPal

Books & works: The Ethics Of Belief

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