Between Evidentialism And Fideism

On Ethics of Belief and Mystical Experience

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of ethics of belief, posed by William Clifford in his famous essay. According to his view, “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence”. The author shows that strict evidentialism, which follows from this statement, is not logically and pragmatically justified, since there is evidence that we do not have enough evidence in favor of evidentialism. With respect to the epistemology of the religious belief, the main principle of evidentialism also needs some limitations, since the central subject of theology has a very specific ontological status and, being outside the world, cannot be grasped by propositions that fix only what there is in the world.