William Kingdon Clifford, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The question people press on me, once they have granted that a man must not believe on insufficient evidence, is this: what then becomes of the vast inherited stock of human knowledge? No man can verify a hundredth part of what he acts upon daily. Must he suspend judgment on all of it?1 The answer is no, and the second part of "The Ethics of Belief" — the section I call "The Weight of Authority" — is devoted to showing why not.
There is no practical danger that scrupulous care in the matter of belief will reduce us to paralysis; those men who have most nearly done their duty in this respect have found that certain great principles, most fitted for the guidance of life, stand out more and more clearly in proportion to the care and honesty with which they are tested.2
The beliefs that guide our dealings with one another, and those that guide our dealings with the physical world, never suffer from investigation — they can take care of themselves, without being propped up by anything.3 But the permission to rely on authority is not unlimited, and the limits are what matter. An Arctic explorer who reports the temperature and depth of the sea at a given latitude — we are quite right to believe him, in the absence of any stain upon his veracity; it is conceivable that we might go there and verify his statement, it can be tested by the witness of his companions, and there is adequate ground for supposing that he knows the truth of what he is saying.4
That is the model of legitimate authority: the man's testimony is valid because there are those who question it and verify it, and it is precisely this process of examining and purifying that keeps alive among investigators the love of that which shall stand all possible tests.5 Now set beside him the old whaler who tells us the ice is three hundred feet thick all the way up to the Pole.
The statement may be capable of verification by man in principle, but it is certainly not capable of verification by him, with any means and appliances he has possessed; and he must have persuaded himself of its truth by some means which does not attach any credit to his testimony.6 And if my chemist tells me that an atom of oxygen has existed unaltered in weight and rate of vibration throughout all time, I have no right to believe this on his authority, for it is a thing he cannot know without ceasing to be man — no eminence of character and genius can give a man authority enough to justify us in believing him when he makes statements implying exact or universal knowledge.7
The rule, then, is this: we have no right to accept a claim on authority unless it is within the reach of our informant's knowledge.8 Authority is not a blank cheque drawn on a man's general reputation; it is valid only where the thing affirmed is the kind of thing he could have verified, and where the process of verification is in principle open to others.
Strip away those conditions and what remains is not testimony but assertion — and assertion, however confidently delivered, is nothing. There is a further point, which I put in the essay by way of Milton and Coleridge. Even where the belief is true, a man who holds it merely because his pastor says so, without knowing other reason, holds his truth as a heresy.9
Inquiry into the evidence of a doctrine is not to be made once for all and then taken as finally settled; it is never lawful to stifle a doubt, for either it can be honestly answered by the inquiry already made, or else it proves that the inquiry was not complete.10 The busy man who says he has no time for the long course of study necessary to make him a competent judge — then he should have no time to believe.11
Are we then to become universal sceptics, doubting everything, afraid always to put one foot before the other until we have personally tested the firmness of the road? Are we to deprive ourselves of the help and guidance of that vast body of knowledge which is daily growing upon the world, because neither we nor any other one person can possibly test a hundredth part of it by immediate experiment or observation?Lectures and Essays Vol II, ed. Pollock
Those men who have most nearly done their duty in this respect have found that certain great principles, and these most fitted for the guidance of life, have stood out more and more clearly in proportion to the care and honesty with which they were tested, and have acquired in this way a practical certainty.Lectures and Essays Vol II, ed. Pollock
The beliefs about right and wrong which guide our actions in dealing with men in society, and the beliefs about physical nature which guide our actions in dealing with animate and inanimate bodies, these never suffer from investigation; they can take care of themselves, without being propped up byLectures and Essays Vol II, ed. Pollock
Again, an Arctic explorer may tell us that in a given latitude and longitude he has experienced such and such a degree of cold, that the sea was of such a depth, and the ice of such a character. We should be quite right to believe him, in the absence of any stain upon his veracity. It is conceivable that we might, without ceasing to be men, go there and verify his statement; it can be tested by the witness of his companions, and there is adequate ground for supposing that he knows the truth of what he is saying.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
it is to be observed that his authority is valid because there are those who question it and verify it; that it is precisely this process of examining and purifying that keeps alive among investigators the love of that which shall stand all possible tests, the sense of public responsibility as of those whose work, if well done, shall remain as the enduring heritage of mankind.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
although the statement may be capable of verification by man, it is certainly not capable of verification by him, with any means and appliances which he has possessed; and he must have persuaded himself of the truth of it by some means which does not attach any credit to his testimony.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
if my chemist tells me that an atom of oxygen has existed unaltered in weight and rate of vibration throughout all time, I have no right to believe this on his authority, for it is a thing which he cannot know without ceasing to be man. No eminence of character and genius can give a man authority enough to justify us in believing him when he makes statements implying exact or universal knowledge.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
we have no right to accept it upon authority unless it is within the reach of our informant's knowledge.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determine, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
Inquiry into the evidence of a doctrine is not to be made once for all, and then taken as finally settled. It is never lawful to stifle a doubt; for either it can be honestly answered by means of the inquiry already made, or else it proves that the inquiry was not complete.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief
'But,' says one, 'I am a busy man; I have no time for the long course of study which would be necessary to make me in any degree a competent judge of certain questions, or even able to understand the nature of the arguments.' Then he should have no time to believe.The Scientific Basis of Morals and Other Essays, incl. The Ethics of Belief