Logic of the Sea Essay Example for Free

Logic of the Sea EssayThe article The Duty of Inquiry comes from the book The ethics of Belief by William Kingdon Clifford. The author, William Clifford is a notable English philosopher and mathematician of the 19th century. This article talks ab come in belief and how it necessitates responsible inquiry. It asserts that belief should be accompanied by commonsense investigation rather than baseless assertions. Also, we are the ones responsible for our belief regardless of the consequences (Clifford). These arguments were delivered using hypothetical situations pertaining to belief and the importance of inquiry. The authors briny argument is that our beliefs precede our actions and even the result of these actions, which is why we have to take full responsibility of these beliefs through purloin means of inquiry. The author starts by presenting a hypothetical situation of a ship owner and his vessel. The ship owners vessel is rough to set sail across the ocean with a lot of em igrants aboard. However, the owner thinks that the ship may have some problems, and perhaps it is not fit to set sail at all, however, he thinks that it is all besides expensive to repair.He gives it some more thought, clearing his mind of the doubts, establishing a firm idea that his ship is still capable of sailing. He has convinced himself and he clearly disregarded his prior suspicions, and he finally permits he ship to set sail. The inevitable happens, the ship sank, and all those aboard died or were lost at sea. The ship owner collects the insurance, but deep inside him he is guilty of what happened to the passengers. The ship owner may be sincere with his admission of guilt however, this is already irrelevant in this situation.Its because the belief that he conjured were not do from careful investigation, rather it was from stifling his doubts, from disproving by himself whatever thought of uncertainty he had in the first place. In this situation, the ship owners guilt is f rom the fact that he was the one who knowingly and willingly created the frame of mind that made him to believe that his ship can still sail. He had doubts in the beginning but he was able to convince himself, though his decision is made out of preference rather than what is real.He didnt do anything to check up on the ship, to see whether his doubts may hold true or not, instead he just thought about it, thought that it was alright, and made up his mind that it was indeed all right. He is guilty because he didnt do the appropriate inquiry to verify or disprove his thoughts. Rather than acting upon it, he just thought about it, which if we look at it carefully, its a berth careless since a lot of lives are at stake. The author then asserts that the ship owners guild is actually determined regardless of its effects, so whatever the consequences of his beliefs, he is still responsible for it.After giving it some thought, even though the ship may have successfully sailed at that term or even for many more times, the mere fact that he has somehow believed that the ship was unworthy of sailing, he is still responsible for it. His guilt is already determined whether or not the ship survives. It is not about the consequences of the action, but about the belief he had already conjured. From the moment he thought about it, he is already responsible for his belief, so it is his task that to know about his thoughts, to take appropriate means of inquiry in order verify or confirm it.The author then presents another hypothetical situation, this time regarding religious teaching. It is about a prominent personality who is constantly attacked in an organized way, sole(prenominal) to find out after further investigations that the accusations made about him were all false. Because of this, the accusations were immediately discredited. This situation is important because it proves that any reasonable effort to know the virtue or reality of situation given could indeed disco nfirm or disprove any of the accusations initially made.This means that because of the effort exerted to know whats real, the accusations made in the first place are already disconfirmed. Even though the charges directed towards the person were sincere, they are still irrelevant to this situation. The basis of this is that the beliefs presented initially were just ground on preference the accusations made towards that person were the result of their prejudice or perhaps their passion without really giving any attention to factual evidence.So based on this, they really had no right to believe on whatever is presented before them. So when effort is made to verify any of this, it could be regarded as an act to disprove the accusations, and supports the authors argument that the morality of the question is already settled even though the consequences are known. The author industrious the steps in this order so that the reader could build up on the assumption that indeed beliefs should correspond to the appropriate inquiry.Without inquiry, these beliefs were just worthless, and it wouldnt be justified by whatever consequences. By carefully analyzing the hypothetical situations posed by William Clifford, we can see that indeed, belief should be accompanied by reasonable investigation rather than baseless assertions, and that we re responsible for these beliefs. We can achieve this by through appropriate means of inquiry. Work Cited Clifford, William Kingdon. The Ethics of Belief. 1877. December 12 2009. http//ajburger. homestead. com/files/book. htmethics.