{"id":83633,"date":"2024-11-21T13:33:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=83633"},"modified":"2024-11-21T14:33:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:33:54","slug":"final-philosophy-cafe-of-the-semester-poses-questions-about-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=83633","title":{"rendered":"Final Philosophy Cafe of the semester poses questions about beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By RAEGAN NEUFELD<\/strong> <strong>Photos by RORY MOORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter Tramel presented the final Philosophy Cafe of the fall semester on Wednesday, posing questions about the ethics of beliefs and whether or not a belief system should be based on sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow aligncenter\" data-effect=\"slide\"><div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper-container\"><ul class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper\"><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"790\" height=\"427\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-83639\" data-id=\"83639\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?resize=790%2C427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?resize=1024%2C553&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?resize=370%2C200&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?resize=150%2C81&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?resize=768%2C415&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8160.jpg?w=1384&amp;ssl=1 1384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Peter Tramel leads a discussion during the &#8220;Ethics of Beliefs&#8221; Philosophy Cafe in the backroom of Paisley Pear.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"790\" height=\"426\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-83638\" data-id=\"83638\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?resize=790%2C426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?resize=1024%2C552&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?resize=370%2C199&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?resize=150%2C81&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?resize=768%2C414&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8167.jpg?w=1345&amp;ssl=1 1345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Tramel takes questions about the various ethics that were of topic.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"790\" height=\"597\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-83637\" data-id=\"83637\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?resize=790%2C597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?resize=1024%2C774&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?resize=344%2C260&amp;ssl=1 344w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?resize=150%2C113&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?resize=768%2C580&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/DSC_8197.jpg?w=1429&amp;ssl=1 1429w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Tramel talked with others about the ideas of William Kingdon Clifford and William James.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"><\/a><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"><\/a><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"><\/a><div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-white\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Hosted by the Fort Hays State University Philosophy Program, the Philosophy Cafe presentations take place once a month. This semester, they were all at the Paisley Pear, but according to Assistant Professor Rob Byer, the talks may have a different look next semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re kind of thinking right now of doing it online so we can get different professors or interested people we know who would do it so we don\u2019t exhaust our department,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Updates and more information about Philosophy Cafes can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fhsuphilosophy\">Philosophy Program\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tramel, an associate professor in the program, discussed two pieces of literature: \u201cThe Ethics of Belief\u201d by William Clifford and \u201cThe Will to Believe\u201d by William James. He compared the main principles of each piece, Clifford\u2019s being that it is wrong to form a belief without sufficient evidence and James\u2019 being that faith in a fact can help create the fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clifford\u2019s principle is illustrated in \u201cThe Ethics of Belief\u201d by a story about a shipowner who knew his ship was old and needed repairs. People told him it was not seaworthy, but he convinced himself it would make it another journey like it had before. The story ends with the shipowner collecting insurance money after the boat sinks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cClifford\u2019s taking kind of a new position at this time that it can be immoral to believe something,\u201d Tramel said. \u201cWe would probably all condemn the shipowner\u2019s negligence in sending the ship. The man acted sincerely according to the example, according to his sincere belief, but he had no right to that belief. So the focus of the immorality is the belief and his forming of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Tramel, Clifford\u2019s position later became what philosophers call evidentialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tramel and attendees then discussed what constitutes \u201csufficient evidence\u201d and the difference between moral values and values based on knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James\u2019 principle is explained using a mountain climbing example in \u201cThe Will to Believe,\u201d which is a response to Clifford. Poses a hypothetical situation in which a mountain climber is trapped and their only way out is to a \u201cterrible\u201d leap. James argues that if they believe they can make it they will, but if they don\u2019t, they will fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tramel compared the example to athletes whose success can partly be attributed to a positive mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is a class of cases in which faith in a fact can help create the fact,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Confidence can help in other situations, such as dating and social and political causes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn cases where facts and logic can decide definitively one way or another &#8211; we can gather evidence, logic and reasons and prove something &#8211; (James says) we shouldn\u2019t be messing around with faith in those cases,\u201d Tramel said. \u201cBut he thinks there are other cases where faith is not only permissible, but may be required.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attendees debated this idea, the difference between faith creating a reality and a fact and the criticisms of both Clifford\u2019s and James\u2019 principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recordings of past Philosophy Cafes can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@fhsuphilosophy\/videos\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By RAEGAN NEUFELD Photos by RORY MOORE Tiger Media Network Peter Tramel presented the final Philosophy Cafe of the fall semester on Wednesday, posing questions&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":83634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[16094,16095,15829,14226],"class_list":["post-83633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-fhsu-department-of-philosophy","tag-philosophy","tag-philosophy-cafe","tag-raegan-neufeld"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Philosophy-Care.jpg?fit=672%2C367&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83633"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83644,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83633\/revisions\/83644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}