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William Kingdon Clifford

William Kingdon Clifford Books

Mathematician

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“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. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”

BeliefSocietyDangerEvidenceHarmTrueActionsInquiryCredulitySavagery
Book:Ethics of Belief and Other Essays
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“Newton supposed that the case of the planet was similar to that of [a ball spun around on the end of an elastic string]; that it was always pulled in the direction of the sun, and that this attraction or pulling of the sun produced the revolution of the planet, in the same way that the traction or pulling of the elastic string produces the revolution of the ball. What there is between the sun and the planet that makes each of them pull the other, Newton did not know; nobody knows to this day; and all we are now able to assert positively is that the known motion of the planet is precisely what would be produced if it were fastened to the sun by an elastic string, having a certain law of elasticity. Now observe the nature of this discovery, the greatest in its consequences that has ever yet been made in physical science:— I. It begins with an hypothesis, by supposing that there is an analogy between the motion of a planet and the motion of a ball at the end of a string. II. Science becomes independent of the hypothesis, for we merely use it to investigate the properties of the motion, and do not trouble ourselves further about the cause of it.”

ScienceSunPlanetsDiscoveryGravityInvestigationConsequencesHypothesisNewtonCauseMotionElasticityIsaac NewtonProperties
Book:On Some Conditions Of Mental Development: Together With On The Unconscious Activity Of The Brain
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“Euclid's Elements has been for nearly twenty-two centuries the encouragement and guide of that scientific thought which is one thing with the progress of man from a worse to a better state. The encouragement; for it contained a body of knowledge that was really known and could be relied on, and that moreover was growing in extent and application. For even at the time this book was written—shortly after the foundation of the Alexandrian Museum—Mathematics was no longer the merely ideal science of the Platonic school, but had started on her career of conquest over the whole world of Phenomena. The guide; for the aim of every scientific student of every subject was to bring his knowledge of that subject into a form as perfect as that which geometry had attained. Far up on the great mountain of Truth, which all the sciences hope to scale, the foremost of that sacred sisterhood was seen, beckoning for the rest to follow her.”

TruthSciencePerfectKnowledgeProgressElementsEncouragementMathematicsSacredMathApplicationPlatoConquestGeometryStudentGuidePlatonicScientificEuclidAlexandriaSubjectScientific ThoughtRelience
Book:Lectures and Essays by the Late William Kingdon Clifford, F.R.S.
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“It cannot be doubted that theistic belief is a comfort and a solace to those who hold it, and that the loss of it is a very painful loss. It cannot be doubted, at least, by many of us in this generation, who either profess it now, or received it in our childhood and have parted from it since with such searching trouble as only cradle-faiths can cause. We have seen the spring sun shine out of an empty heaven, to light up a soulless earth; we have felt with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is dead.”

LightEarthBeliefHeavenFeltCausesLossSunGenerationsTroubleAtheismChildhoodLonelinessComfortSpringEmptyOur ChildrenShiningPainfulPositive AtheismCompanionCradleSolaceDoubtedLight UpThis GenerationSun ShinesSoulless
Book:The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays
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“If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call in question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it - the life of that man is one long sin against mankind.”

IfsMenMindLongBookReadingBeliefSinCompanyDoubtAtheismChildhoodMankindTaughtRegardDown AndAriseDisturbing
Book:Lectures and Essays, by the Late William Kingdon Clifford
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“Remember that [scientific thought] is the guide of action; that the truth which it arrives at is not that which we can ideally contemplate without error, but that which we may act upon without fear; and you cannot fail to see that scientific thought is not an accompaniment or condition of human progress, but human progress itself.”

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Book:Lectures and Essays
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“A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions.”

BelieveLittlesShowsActionBeliefReflectionFundamentalsGuidesSimplestOur Actions
Book:The Scientific Basis of Morals: And Other Essays, Viz. : Right and Wrong, the Ethics of Belief, the Ethics of Religion
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“The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”

ShouldBelieveEnoughLosesDangerHabitTestingWrong ThingsSavageryInquiring
Book:The Scientific Basis of Morals: And Other Essays, Viz. : Right and Wrong, the Ethics of Belief, the Ethics of Religion
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“The aim of scientific thought, then, is to apply past experience to new circumstances; the instrument is an observed uniformity in the course of events. By the use of this instrument it gives us information transcending our experience, it enables us to infer things that we have not seen from things that we have seen; and the evidence for the truth of that information depends on our supposing that the uniformity holds good beyond our experience.”

GivingUsePastCoursesEventsInformationDependsCircumstancesEvidenceAimInstrumentsUniformityTranscendingSupposingPast ExperiencesSupposing That
Book:The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays
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“Namely, we have no right to believe a thing true because everybody says so unless there are good grounds for believing that some one person at least has the means of knowing what is true, and is speaking the truth so far as he knows it.”

KnowsBelieveMeanPersonsKnowingSpeak The Truth
Book:The Scientific Basis of Morals: And Other Essays, Viz. : Right and Wrong, the Ethics of Belief, the Ethics of Religion
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