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Clifford's principle holds that it is immoral for individuals, no matter of circumstances, to believe anything without sufficient evidence.While this principle has existed for centuries, it only became prominent in the minds of the common people after the ethics of belief debate in the 19th century [1] between W.K. Clifford and William James, with Clifford articulating the principle in his now ...
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 1845 – 3 March 1879) was a British mathematician and philosopher.Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour.
Contemporary discussions of the ethics of belief stem largely from a famous nineteenth-century exchange between the British mathematician and philosopher W. K. Clifford and the American philosopher William James. In 1877 Clifford published an article titled "The Ethics of Belief" in the journal The Contemporary Review. There Clifford argued for ...
Human Nature is a film documentary which presents an in-depth description of the gene editing process of CRISPR, and its possible implications.The film includes the perspective of the scientists who invented the process, and of the genetic engineers who are applying the process.
Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or what it 'means' to be human. This usage has proven to be controversial in that there is dispute as to whether or not ...
James' "The Will to Believe" and William K. Clifford's essay "The Ethics of Belief" are touchstones for many contemporary debates over evidentialism, faith, and overbelief. James' "The Will to Believe" consists of introductory remarks followed by ten numbered but not titled sections.
American scholar Nicholas Rescher has stated that metaphysics comes into play when analyzing such a philosophical viewpoint about human thinking given that nature of ideals gives them a particular status as "useful fictions", with this developing in terms of their special existence relative to the broader concept of ethical choice.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, in which the author makes a case against tabula rasa models in the social sciences, arguing that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations.