Reconstruction of Clifford’s Inquiries 📈 (1025)

To have knowledge about something is to know how to handle it in any circumstance.

2. People have a stronger sense of security when they are aware of what’s actually going on.

Conclusion: Evidence creates a stronger sense of security of knowledge and how to handle the situation in any circumstance.

Throughout reading Clifford’s arguments it was hard for me to find a fallacy because overall I agree with Clifford’s arguments. Clifford’s arguments were valid. Clifford’s arguments were sound. When I began reading I struggled to find a fallacy, but I did find one fallacy that stood out to me the most. The fallacy that stood out the most to me would be False Dilemma. Clifford’s argument overall is valid because it can be proven to be true. Both the conclusion and premises are true, so I would have to say that Clifford’s arguments are sound and valid. Personally, I agree with Clifford’s argument because knowledge to me is power. “Knowledge is Power,” this quote was stated by Francis Beacon. I was introduced to this quote in middle school by my eighth grade teacher Ms.Cantwell. Also my mother always told me as a child to educate myself because an education/knowledge is something that no one can ever take away from you. My mother has always been a big advocate for acquiring knowledge to sustain a better future. Throughout Black history knowledge is something that at times could make life more challenging and at times would be the only way out of a really bad situation, so valuing knowledge made Clifford’s agreement stand out to me. For Clifford’s second argument once I understood what he was saying, I automatically agreed to this statement. Having a sense of security is created when people are aware of the situation. Security comes from knowledge and how having knowledge of your surroundings or just about a situation can make a person feel safe. Clifford’s conclusion made his premises true, so I also believed that the conclusion was sound and valid. Clifford’s conclusion is common sense, if we don’t have knowledge or security we will lose our way as a people, a community, a nation, and even smaller coalitions and groups. “We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to, and the evil born when one such belief is entertained is great and wide. But a greater and wider evil arises when the credulous character is maintained and supported, when a habit of believing for unworthy reasons is fostered and made permanent. If I steal money from any person, there may be no harm done by the mere transfer of possession; he may not feel the loss, or it may prevent him from using the money badly. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself dishonest. What hurts society is not that it should lose its property, but that it should become a den of thieves; for then it must cease to be society. This is why we ought not to do evil that good may come; for at any rate this great evil has come, that we have done evil and are made wicked thereby. In like manner, if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts” (Clifford, 6). This quote to me explained the key concept of the importance of having evidence present. When evidence is not present we are allowed to believe anything, even if that can be the thing to destroy us. Clifford explained that what we may believe in may also be the thing to help us improve. I can agree with Clifford because that mindset to me is kind of spontaneous. The example of stealing really resonates with me because I used to steal from stores a lot and not think that I was doing anything bad. But maturing and becoming an adult showed me that taking things that are not yours affects something somehow even if you may not see the direct effect of your actions. Hypothetically, if society became a den of thieves nothing would hold value. Everything that we believe in morally would equal nothing and that is what creates the importance of having evidence in everything we believe in. Evidence creates security of knowledge and that is what makes me agree with Clifford the most. “This sense of power is the highest and best of pleasures when the belief on which it is founded is a true belief, and has been fairly earned by investigation. For then we may justly feel that it is common property, and holds good for others as well as for ourselves. Then we may be glad, not that I have learned secrets by which I am safer and stronger, but that we men have got mastery over more of the world; and we shall be strong, not for ourselves, but in the name of Man and his strength. But if the belief has been accepted on insufficient evidence, the pleasure is a stolen one. Not only does it deceive ourselves by giving us a sense of power which we do not really possess, but it is sinful, because it is stolen in defiance of our duty to mankind” (Clifford, 5). This quote further explains Clifford’s argument of why evidence is important when establishing beliefs. The quote explains why people feel satisfied when they endow new knowledge. Knowledge creates power and when people acquire more power it brings them happiness. Clifford explains receiving knowledge with no evidence as an injustice to mankind. I can agree with this statement because believing anything can create bad habits that a person may not fully understand because they are just living life with no real substance. Overall I agree with Clifford because evidence creates a sense of security that to me is vital when establishing values, morals, and beliefs. Clifford explained his arguments very clearly and his arguments were sound and valid.