W.K Clifford "Ethics of Belief"
             What is the hidden force behind our actions? W. K Clifford shows us how our beliefs ultimately lead to our actions, in his article titled The Ethics of Belief. Pointing out the necessity of forming our beliefs the right way. This right way is accomplished by doubting, questioning, and investigating. The consequences of naively accepting our beliefs can have negative affects on the individual themselves, and on society as a whole. The strong ties between our beliefs and our actions are also shown in this article. Clifford sees a problem in people's tendency to accept their beliefs on "insufficient evidence". This problem is set out to us by two stories, one of a ship-owner and the other of wrongly accused professors.
             Looking first at the ship-owner story which illustrates how the ship-owner had initial beliefs that the ship was not fit to sail, and how he repressed his doubts, leading to the death of several men. Clifford argues that because the ship owner had no right to believe the ship was fit for sailing, he was responsible for the death of the men. The ship-owner lost his right to believe in such evidence when he repressed his doubts, and did no real investigating of the ships problems. Clifford goes on to say that an action is right or wrong regardless of the outcome. The ship-owner was morally obligated to act on his initial doubts.
             The following story shows how the obligation of morality lies in the investigation. This story is about a few professors who were accused of using unfair means to teach
             children their religious beliefs, the community got together and publicly labeled these men. As a result of the up roar a commission got together to evaluate the evidence. After an investigation was conducted it was clear that these men were innocent, and the community could have easily found this out if they investigated their beliefs before acting upon them.
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