I suppose we discussed this question
more in the MWF class. Descartes
suggests we should be ultra-conservative
in forming our beliefs, erring on the side
of missing out on having a true belief to
avoid getting a false one. According to
Descartes, we should restrict our beliefs
to those of which we are absolutely
certain. This has some drawbacks:

(1) You might miss out on the benefits of
religious faith. Most people acknowledge
that religious beliefs cannot be known
with absolute certainty (Descartes would
disagree), so whatever benefits there are
to the life of faith, you'd miss out on.

(2) You might also miss out on life-saving
medical cures on which it would make
sense to take a "rational gamble". For
example, if you start taking human growth
hormone now you might live an extra
30-40 years. By the time it's proven, it may
be too late to benefit you.

(3) You need to live your life NOW based
on your present beliefs. If you withhold
judgement on everything until you're
certain, you'll never get very far in life. For
instance, suppose you want to start your
own business. If you wait until you're
absolutely certain you'll succeed, you'll
never get your business of the ground. To
start requires taking a calculated risk.

However, there are disadvantages to the
liberal view as well

(1) You can be easily scammed, fooled or
make poor decisions which could have
disasterous consquences. Gobbling
down mexican yams and having your
blood electrified in order to cure your
cancer, for example, then dying. Or
ending up like the followers of the
Heaven's Gate cult who committed
suicide with the belief they would shed
their "containers" for a "higher plane of
existence."

(2) You'd still have a problem with
*conflicting* beliefs. If you believe things
easily, you may end up with a lot of
contradictory beliefs and might not be
paralyzed because you are withholding
judgement but be paralyzed because you
didn't know which of your many conflicting
beliefs to act on.

I suggest that the best path is to lean
towards the conservative path, since
human nature is to lean the other way,
towards the more liberal path.

This kind of conservatism/liberalism has
nothing to do with political
conservatism/liberalism.

Prof. Borrowdale