Ethical dilemma: Who should you believe? - Alex Worsnip
You’re sitting on the couch watching TV,
when you hear a knock on the door.
The police have just arrived
to arrest your spouse— for murder.
This accusation comes as a total shock.
In your experience, your partner has
always been gentle and loving,
and you can't imagine them committing
a grisly murder.
But the evidence is serious:
their fingerprints were found
on the murder weapon.
Your spouse insists they're innocent.
“I know it looks bad,” they say,
“but you have to believe me!
If you don’t, who will?”
Should you believe your spouse,
even though the evidence
against them looks damning?
Take a second to think what you would
believe in this situation.
This dilemma is part of what philosophers
call the ethics of belief:
a field of study that explores
how we ought to form beliefs,
and whether we have ethical duties
to believe certain things.
The question here isn't about
what you should do,
such as whether or not you should find
your spouse guilty in a court of law.
After all, you wouldn’t be on the jury
in their trial!
Rather, it’s about what you should believe
to be true.
So, what factors should you consider?
Perhaps the most obvious is your evidence.
After all, to believe something
is to take it to be true.
And evidence is, by definition,
all information that helps
us determine what's true.
From this, some philosophers draw
the conclusion that evidence
is the only thing that ought
to determine what you believe.
This view is called evidentialism,
and a strict evidentialist would say
it doesn’t matter that the accused
is your spouse.
You should evaluate the evidence
from a neutral, objective point of view.
Taking the perspective
of an unbiased third party,
your judgment of your spouse's character
is a relevant consideration.
But finding their fingerprints
at the crime scene
is surely stronger evidence.
So, from an evidentialist point of view,
you should either believe
your spouse is guilty,
or at best remain undecided.
Some philosophers present
evidentialism only as a view
of what’s most rational to believe.
But others, like 19th century
evidentialist W.K. Clifford,
think that following the evidence
is also morally required.
One argument for this view is that
having well-informed, accurate beliefs
is often vitally important to determining
the ethical way to act.
Another argument is that there’s something
unethical about being dishonest,
and refusing to follow the evidence is
a way of being dishonest with oneself.
However, perhaps there are other
ethical factors in play.
Although the evidence against
your spouse is strong,
there’s still a chance that
they’re actually innocent.
Think for a moment about how
it would feel to be innocent,
and have no one believe you—
not even your own partner!
By not trusting your spouse,
you run the risk of seriously hurting
them in their crucial hour of need.
Moreover, consider what this lack
of trust would do to your marriage.
It would be incredibly difficult
to continue a loving relationship
with someone that you believed—
or even strongly suspected—
was a murderer.
You might try to pretend to believe
that your spouse is innocent,
but could you really
go on living that lie?
According to a theory of the ethics
of belief called pragmatism,
these kinds of practical considerations
can sometimes make it right
to believe something
even without strong evidence.
Some pragmatists would even say
that you morally owe it to your spouse
to believe them.
But is it even possible to believe
your spouse is innocent
just because you think it’ll be good
for your relationship?
Or because you think you owe
it to the accused?
You might desperately want
to believe they’re innocent,
but can you control your beliefs in the
same way you control your actions?
It seems like you can’t just believe
whatever you like
when the truth is staring you in the face.
But on the other hand,
recall your spouse’s plea.
When we say things like this,
we seem to be assuming that it is possible
to control our beliefs in some way.
So what do you think?
Can you control what beliefs you have?
And if so, what will you believe
about your spouse?
