Thinker · TH-0422
W. K. Clifford
William Kingdon Clifford was an English mathematician and philosopher, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and professor at University College London, who died young…
Also known as William Kingdon Clifford
1845 – 1879 · Exeter, Cambridge, London
Traditions: Modern European
William Kingdon Clifford was an English mathematician and philosopher, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and professor at University College London, who died young of tuberculosis. Mathematicians remember him for geometric algebra and early ideas linking matter to the curvature of space. Philosophers know him for "The Ethics of Belief", which argues through the story of a shipowner who sends an unseaworthy ship to sea that believing anything upon insufficient evidence is always wrong. William James's "The Will to Believe" was written partly in reply.
Key ideas
- It is wrong always, everywhere and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
- Sincere belief does not excuse a believer who did not earn the right to it by inquiry.
- Beliefs are a public trust, since each belief affects how others believe and act.
- Physical space might be curved, and matter could be understood through that curvature.
Major works
- "On the Space-Theory of Matter" (1876, abstract of an 1870 paper)
- "The Ethics of Belief" (1877)
- The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885, posthumous, completed by Karl Pearson)
In the conversation
- Reading group Reading group: Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” and James’s “The Will to Believe” side by side
- Debate Belief in God can be rational without arguments: Plantinga’s proper basicality deserves a fair hearing
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where W. K. Clifford takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 2.2.5 Revelation Can something be known because it was disclosed rather than discovered?