# William Clifford, The Ethics Of Belief - Veracity, Knowledge, and Judgement  - Sadler's Lectures

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sadler-s-lectures-233636/william-clifford-the-ethics-of-belief-veracity-knowledge-and-judgement-sadler-s-lectures.md
Podcast: [Sadler's Lectures](https://stenobird.com/podcast/sadler-s-lectures-233636)
Published: 2026-05-28T23:45:05+00:00
Episode link: https://soundcloud.com/gregorybsadler/william-clifford-the-ethics-2
Audio file: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2318227766-gregorybsadler-william-clifford-the-ethics-2.mp3
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Duration seconds: 929

## Resource

This lecture discusses the William Clifford's 1877 essay "The Ethics Of Belief", in which he makes and argued for the central claim "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." It focuses on Clifford's criteria for determining when and whether we ought to give credence to the testimony of other people, especially those who have made assertions we cannot directly verify. He identifies three key qualities we can look for in these persons, namely: veracity, knowledge, and judgement, explains what they are, and applies them to some example cases. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Clifford's The Ethics of Belief - https://amzn.to/41WkkYA

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## Transcript

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