Clifford vs
. James: Analyzing Belief and Evidence in Faith
School
Chicago State University**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
PHIL 1010
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Dec 11, 2024
Pages
1
Uploaded by MagistrateWillpower19544
Explain Clifford's boat captain analogy. Why does James think Clifford's boat captain analogy is a bad analogy for explaining belief in God? You should explain the way the two think about evidence, and James' concepts of 'live' and 'dead' options for beliefs.Clifford’s boat captain analogy illustrates a boat captain with all sufficient evidence to suggest that theship is too worn to make the trip but still, due to the boat captain’s belief and trust in God to protect theship, sends the ship out to her demise. This paints a portrait as to how harmful beliefs can be toourselves and each other, how our beliefs can deceive us from the truth, and suggests in his argumentthat the continual act of this sort of analogy (however small or large scale the belief is) creates a worsesociety of individuals which are easy to deceive and untrustworthy. James thinks this analogy is bad for explaining belief in God because he believes that there are scenarioswhere we can’t know the truth and we must take a leap of faith. God may not show himself to us unlesswe believe and enter a different realm—this is a scenario (a skeptical one) which cannot be disprovenbut does not have any evidence. The world is full of scenarios which cannot be disproven and lackphysical evidence. James thinks it is perfectly fine for someone to believe something for pragmaticreasons rather than rely entirely on epistemic reasons when they are living options for beliefs as long asthey are in the right context, such as something that lives in our culture; individuals give it life ratherthan many dead hypotheses (like we are instead living in the Matrix and when we die we move onto adifferent movie). James believes that the evidence lives in the way we give it life and in this way definesit very differently than Clifford, who requires proof and evidence otherwise we, as individuals and aspart of the society, will be deceived and, overall, we need to stay critical of our world.
