Moral Philosophy Quotes

Collection of famous quotes and sayings about Moral Philosophy.

Quotes About Moral Philosophy

Enjoy collection of 100 Moral Philosophy quotes. Download and share images of famous quotes about Moral Philosophy. Righ click to see and save pictures of Moral Philosophy quotes that you can use as your wallpaper for free.

... while transparency is a natural associate of liberalism, it falls short of implying rationalism. It is one aspiration, that social and ethical relations should not essentially rest on ignorance and misunderstanding of what they are, and quite another that all the beliefs and principles involved in them should be explicitly stated. That these are two different things is obvious with personal relations, where to hope that they do not rest on deceit and error is merely decent, but to think that their basis can be made totally explicit is idiocy. ~ Bernard Williams
Moral Philosophy quotes by Bernard Williams
Just as his sentimentalism is profoundly middle-class and plebeian, but his irrationalism reactionary, so his moral philosophy also contains an inner contradiction: on the one hand, it is saturated with strongly plebeian characteristics, but on the other, it contains the germ of a new aristocratism. The concept of the 'beautiful soul' presupposes the complete dissolution of kalo-kagathia and implies the perfect spiritualization of all human values, but it also implies an application of aesthetic criteria to morality and is bound up with the view that moral values are the gift of nature. It means the recognition of a nobility of soul to which everyone has a right by nature, but in which the place of irrational birthrights is taken by an equally irrational quality of moral genius. The way of Rousseau's 'spiritual beauty' leads, on the one hand, to characters like Dostoevsky's Myshkin, who is a saint in the guise of an epilectic and an idiot, on the other, to the ideal of individual moral perfection which knows no social responsibility and does not aspire to be socially useful. Goethe, the Olympian, who thinks of nothing but his own spiritual perfection, is a disciple of Rousseau just as much as the young freethinker who wrote Werther. ~ Arnold Hauser
Moral Philosophy quotes by Arnold Hauser
We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach. ~ Bertrand Russell
Moral Philosophy quotes by Bertrand Russell
The supernatural worldview is causing a great number of otherwise intelligent people to cling to a collection of atavistic concepts that have not, and never will serve humanity in any ultimately beneficial way. Any benefits that spirituality ostensibly provides to its adherents, can be found equally in the worldview of philosophy and ethics, communities of other kinds, and so on. It's a myth that the only morality, hope, purpose and comfort to be found, resides only in the supernatural. ~ Kelli Jae Baeli
Moral Philosophy quotes by Kelli Jae Baeli
If you view yourself as having a value-conferring status in virtue of of your power of rational choice, you must view anyone who has the power of rational choice as having...a value conferring status. ~ Christine M. Korsgaard
Moral Philosophy quotes by Christine M. Korsgaard
The true enemy of good isn't evil, but fear. Evil will battle good, but fear will corrupt it.

- a Merraban saying, quoted by Admiral Pachelbel ~ Jim C. Hines
Moral Philosophy quotes by Jim C. Hines
Despite my deep unease about animal advocates working for things we don't want and asking for changes we don't believe in, I am not an "abolitionist." First, the abolition of animal slavery will no more end speciesism by itself than the abolition of American slavery ended racism. To change the world, I think we should aim higher. Second, I'm increasingly convinced that no matter who uses the term, it hides a slur. When used to refer to others, it connotes zealotry and obstructionism, and when taken as self-definition, it is seen as an attack by anyone who does not apply it to herself. Yes, it's a highly defensible moral philosophy, right up there with Peter Singer's application of Utilitarianism to animal liberation, and Tom Regan's Theory of Rights, but like those other intellectual concepts, it's useful only so far as it engenders right action. ~ Sarahjane Blum
Moral Philosophy quotes by Sarahjane Blum
If 10 percent of the population were to take a consciously ethical outlook on life and act accordingly, the resulting change would be more significant than any change of government, ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
But what they find most amazing and despicable is the insanity of those who all but worship the rich, to whom they owe nothing and who can do them no harm; they do so for no other reason except that they are rich, knowing full well that they are so mean and tightfisted that they will certainly never give them one red cent during their whole lives. ~ Thomas More
Moral Philosophy quotes by Thomas More
As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.
[Letter to William Short, 31 October 1819] ~ Thomas Jefferson
Moral Philosophy quotes by Thomas Jefferson
Only the shallowest person believes that they can attain true happiness by maximizing their wealth at any cost. In absence of morality, ethics, and a sustainable philosophy to guide us in an ethical search for happiness, we will always perceive life's random countervailing forces of adversity and unpleasantness as inflicting a great personal injustice upon us. Through application of a deeply embedded personal philosophy, we can push back against the negative implications of a life of suffering. We can use a philosophical stance to gain the perspective needed to say 'yes' to all of life, both its rosy path of ineffable joys and a blackened trail of tears. We must learn to accept life as it truly is and not waste precious time in wistfulness. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster
Moral Philosophy quotes by Kilroy J. Oldster
We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we. The most distinct and beautiful statements of any truth must take at last the mathematical form. We might so simplify the rules of moral philosophy, as well as of arithmetic, that one formula would express them both. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Moral Philosophy quotes by Henry David Thoreau
I charge my clients for my time and expertise, my heart is free. ~ Saurabh Gupta
Moral Philosophy quotes by Saurabh Gupta
If you think of yourself as a follower of Christ's teachings, if you consider yourself a good person, you are morally obligated to be against greed. It's your duty as a good person to be against exploitation. It's your moral duty to be against predatory capitalism. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy
Moral Philosophy quotes by Oliver Markus Malloy
If you witness evil men committing evil deeds and do nothing, what does that make you? ~ K.L. Toth
Moral Philosophy quotes by K.L. Toth
Do you feel no compunction, Socrates, at having followed a line of action which puts you in danger of the death penalty?'
I might fairly reply to him, 'You are mistaken, my friend, if you think that a man who is worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action
that is, whether he is acting rightly or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one. ~ Socrates
Moral Philosophy quotes by Socrates
The terrible error in the course of human civilization is undoubtedly the defective judgment that allowed religious authorities usurp the foundation of societal morality, in which all collective ethics of humankind must take a cause. This appalling blunder is comparable only to assigning the leper exclusive franchise to run beauty clinics in the society; this can only lead to cycles upon cycles of common infection syndrome. ~ Adebowale Ojowuro
Moral Philosophy quotes by Adebowale Ojowuro
The animals themselves are incapable of demanding their own liberation, or of protesting against their condition with votes, demonstrations, or bombs. Human beings have the power to continue to oppress other species forever, or until we make this planet unsuitable for living beings. Will our tyranny continue, proving that we really are the selfish tyrants that the most cynical of poets and philosophers have always said we are? Or will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally indefensible? The way in which we answer this question depends on the way in which each one of us, individually, answers it. ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
Moral relativism, a position many find attractive only until they are faced with someone who is doing something really, really wrong. ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
So far I have not said much about objectivity, though earlier chapters have had a good deal to do with it. If an Archimedean point could be found and practical reason, or human interests, could be shown to involve a determinate ethical outlook, then ethical thought would be objective, in the sense that it would have been given an objective foundation. Those are possibilities - or they might have turned out to be possibilities - within the perspective of practical reason. Very often, however, discussions of objectivity come into moral philosophy from a different starting point, from an interest in comparing ethical beliefs with knowledge and claims to truth of other kinds, for instance with scientific beliefs. Here a rather different conception of objectivity is involved. It is naturally associated with such questions as what can make ethical beliefs true, and whether there is any ethical knowledge. It is in this field of comparisons that various distinctions between fact and value are located. ~ Bernard Williams
Moral Philosophy quotes by Bernard Williams
God has given everything to fulfill our need,
But he has nothing to satisfy our greed. ~ MIKAIL ALI
Moral Philosophy quotes by MIKAIL ALI
Distant wrongs, she thought: an interesting issue in moral philosophy. Do past wrongs seem less wrong to us simply because they are less vivid? ~ Alexander McCall Smith
Moral Philosophy quotes by Alexander McCall Smith
All good moral philosophy is ... but the handmaid to religion. ~ Francis Bacon
Moral Philosophy quotes by Francis Bacon
The passionate heart touches the sky. The meditative mind enters it. ~ Yasmine Sherif (The Case For Humanity: An Extraordinary Session)
Moral Philosophy quotes by Yasmine Sherif (The Case For Humanity: An Extraordinary Session)
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light. ~ Jeremy Bentham
Moral Philosophy quotes by Jeremy Bentham
Scientific theories never dictate human values, but they can often cast new light on ethical issues. From a sexual selection viewpoint, moral philosophy and political theory have mostly been attempts to shift male human sexual competitiveness from physical violence to the peaceful accumulation of wealth and status. The rights to life, liberty, and property are cultural inventions that function, in part, to keep males from killing and stealing from one another while they compete to attract sexual partners. ~ Geoffrey Miller
Moral Philosophy quotes by Geoffrey Miller
Don't Shoot is a work of moral philosophy that reads like a crime novel - Immanuel Kant meets Joseph Wambaugh. It's a fascinating, inspiring, and wonderfully well written story of one man's quest to solve a problem no one thought could be solved: the scourge of inner city gang violence This is a vitally important work that has the potential to usher in a new era in policing. ~ John Seabrook
Moral Philosophy quotes by John Seabrook
....it seems to me that a pleasurable Contemplation of Beauty has certainly an immeasurably greater value than mere Consciousness of Pleasure. ~ G.E. Moore
Moral Philosophy quotes by G.E. Moore
There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'it is not owing to me, it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, 'it was not I, it was the weapon? ~ Mencius
Moral Philosophy quotes by Mencius
Individual talent is an obstruction principally among teams that employ the facade of a synergy to diminish the majorities mediocrity. ~ Anthony Corlisatra
Moral Philosophy quotes by Anthony Corlisatra
We are not quite sure that the Sermon on the Mount is the Sermon for the mart. We are not
sure, and an unsure place is an unsafe place*
We must go on or go back. We must be more
Christian or less. ~ E. Stanley Jones
Moral Philosophy quotes by E. Stanley Jones
Why is your HOW message today more timely than ever?
All progress now depends on How. We have entered the Era of Behavior. Of course our behavior has always mattered, but in today's world, it matters more than ever and in ways it never has before. We live in a more connected and interdependent world. Yet we tend to speak about the world in amoral terms. The single most profound implication of an increasingly interconnected world is that it has rendered us ethically, if not morally, interdependent. ~ Dov Seidman
Moral Philosophy quotes by Dov Seidman
I think that novels are tools of thought. They are moral philosophy with the theory left out, with just the examples of the moral situations left standing. ~ Jill Paton Walsh
Moral Philosophy quotes by Jill Paton Walsh
Moral philosophy is very largely a branch of fiction. Despite this, a philosopher has yet to write a great novel. The fact should not be surprising. In philosophy the truth about human life is of no interest ~ John N. Gray
Moral Philosophy quotes by John N. Gray
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which Smith published in 1776, is the most important book ever written about capitalism and its moral ramifications. Though The Wealth of Nations is in good part about commerce, it was not written for businessmen or merchants. A book focused on the analysis of market processes motivated by self-interest, it was written by one of the most admired philosophers of the Enlightenment, a former professor of logic, rhetoric, jurisprudence, and moral philosophy, in order to influence politicians and rouse them to pursue the common good. ~ Jerry Z. Muller
Moral Philosophy quotes by Jerry Z. Muller
I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain. ~ Voltaire
Moral Philosophy quotes by Voltaire
Lymond said gently, Let us bathe in moral philosophy, as in a living river. Double-dealing is my business. ~ Dorothy Dunnett
Moral Philosophy quotes by Dorothy Dunnett
Morality does not come to this mortal world from some imaginary paradise. It rises from the neurons of mortal humans. ~ Abhijit Naskar
Moral Philosophy quotes by Abhijit Naskar
He would have been careful not to violate his conscience in any way that might keep him from devoting his full attention to the sin he had decided to commit. Pedro was not really very different from all men, at least in that. Not very different from the bank teller who makes sure to give every customer exact change, even while he is embezzling. ~ Warren Eyster
Moral Philosophy quotes by Warren Eyster
What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? ~ Various
Moral Philosophy quotes by Various
Morality exists in the neurons as a natural sensation. Religion only tries to codify it. ~ Abhijit Naskar
Moral Philosophy quotes by Abhijit Naskar
If you think hurting people is your strength, you may be speaking from your grave. ~ Mayur Ramgir
Moral Philosophy quotes by Mayur Ramgir
What now matters most is how we respond to various risks to the survival of humanity. We are creating some of these risks, and discovering how we could respond to these and other risks. If we reduce these risks, and humanity survives the next few centuries, our descendants or successors could end these risks by spreading through this galaxy.

Life can be wonderful as well as terrible, and we shall increasingly have the power to make life good. Since human history may be only just beginning, we can expect that future humans, or supra-humans, may achieve some great goods that we cannot now even imagine. In Nietzsche's words, there has never been such a new dawn and clear horizon, and such an open sea.

If we are the only rational beings in the Universe, as some recent evidence suggests, it matters even more whether we shall have descendants or successors during the billions of years in which that would be possible. Some of our successors might live lives and create worlds that, though failing to justify past suffering, would give us all, including some of those who have suffered, reasons to be glad that the Universe exists. ~ Derek Parfit
Moral Philosophy quotes by Derek Parfit
The undermining of Christian faith, systematically pursued by Western cultural and political elites, does not lead to some sort of secular Utopia with its own "neutral" morality, but to the rise of religious beliefs other than Christianity, which will bring their own – often opposite - moral values.
On the clean slate of atheism anything can be written, even sharia law. ~ Giorgio Roversi
Moral Philosophy quotes by Giorgio Roversi
Bobbing and weaving are methods and maneuvers by which we bend ethics, water down morals, and parse down values to serve our agendas. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough
Moral Philosophy quotes by Craig D. Lounsbrough
For it is the business of Ethics, I must insist, not only to obtain true results, but also to find valid reasons for them. ~ G.E. Moore
Moral Philosophy quotes by G.E. Moore
...fiction is as useful as truth, for giving us matter, upon which to exercise the judgment of value. ~ G.E. Moore
Moral Philosophy quotes by G.E. Moore
probably the best-known tenet of modern moral philosophy: the doctrine that there is an unbridgeable gulf between facts and values, between descriptions of what is and prescriptions of what ought to be. ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
We often see this today: people expect the liturgy to be conformed to their emotional states rather than they conforming themselves to an objective cult, which conforms itself to God. ~ Chad A. Ripperger
Moral Philosophy quotes by Chad A. Ripperger
To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be a part of a solution, to understand a little about life and to pass this on. ~ Anne Lamott
Moral Philosophy quotes by Anne Lamott
In short, bioethics investigates ethical issues arising in the life sciences (medicine, health care, genetics, biology, research, etc) by applying the principles and methods of moral philosophy to these problems. ~ Adele Langlois
Moral Philosophy quotes by Adele Langlois
Over the centuries, we've moved on from Scripture to accumulate precepts of ethical, legal and moral philosophy. We've evolved a liberal consensus of what we regard as underpinnings of decent society, such as the idea that we don't approve of slavery or discrimination on the grounds of race or sex, that we respect free speech and the rights of the individual. All of these things that have become second nature to our morals today owe very little to religion, and mostly have been won in opposition to the teeth of religion. ~ Richard Dawkins
Moral Philosophy quotes by Richard Dawkins
We can read a book to learn how to live. Alternatively, akin to any weeping philosopher seeking self-realization, we can look inside ourselves to determine right from wrong. Ethics is not a matter of surveying scripture to determine what constitutes virtuous behavior. A person with high moral character must think about life and act in accordance with their conscientious conclusion(s). My faith is in free will and the ability of a moral person to discern good versus evil, not a person's ability to describe the intentions of whatever deity his or her faith chooses to worship. Simply put, the godhead exists inside me as a spiritual manifestation that embodies people's innate desire to go forth and multiply, dance in the Etesian wind, and make an artistic testament to the primacy of his or her existence by their honorable performance of worthy deeds. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster
Moral Philosophy quotes by Kilroy J. Oldster
Loving comfort, risking little, terrified by the thought of change, (the middle class') aim is to establish a materialistic civilization which will banish threats to its complacency. It has conventions, not ideals; it is washed rather than clean. Thus the final degradation of the Baconian philosophy is that knowledge becomes power in the service of appetite. ~ Richard M. Weaver
Moral Philosophy quotes by Richard M. Weaver
One of the most destructive anti-concepts in the history of moral philosophy is the term 'duty. ~ Ayn Rand
Moral Philosophy quotes by Ayn Rand
God doesn't help. I think that's a knockdown argument. I think that it really shows that whatever moral knowledge we have and whatever moral progress we make in our knowledge or whatever progress we make in our moral knowledge is not coming really from religion. It's coming from the very hard work really of moral philosophy, of trying to ground our moral reasonings. ~ Rebecca Goldstein
Moral Philosophy quotes by Rebecca Goldstein
[It] is nevertheless better than the theological concept, of deriving morality from a divine, all-perfect will, not merely because we do not intuit this perfection, but can derive it solely from our concepts, of which morality is the foremost one, but because if we do not do this (which, if we did, would be a crude circle in explanation), the concept of his will that is left over to us, the attributes of the desire for glory and domination, bound up with frightful representations of power and vengeance, would have to make a foundation for a system of morals that is directly opposed to morality. ~ Immanuel Kant
Moral Philosophy quotes by Immanuel Kant
The ordinary man so very rarely questions the principles in which he has been brought up, that he is usually willing, whenever he has a feeling that he ought to do 'x', to say on this ground that he ought to do 'x'. ~ R.M. Hare
Moral Philosophy quotes by R.M. Hare
It is just as little necessary for the saint to be a philosopher as for the philosopher to be a saint; just as it is not necessary for a perfectly beautiful person to be a great sculptor, or for a sculptor to be himself a beautiful person. In general it is a strange demand on a moralist that he should commend no other virtue than that which he himself possesses. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer
Cordelia – "Why so rough?"
Aral – "It's very poor. It was the town center during the time Isolation. And it hasn't been touched by renovation, minimal water, no electricity choked with refuse."
"Mostly human," added Peoter tartly.
"Poor?" Asked Cordelia bewildered. "No electricity? How can it be on the comm network?"
"It's not of course," answered Vorkosigan.
"Then how can anyone get their schooling?" Cordelia
"They don't."
Cordelia stared. "I don't understand, how do they get their jobs?"
"A few escape to the service, the rest prey on each other mostly." Vorkosigan regarded her face uneasily. "Have you no poverty on Beta colony?"
"Poverty? Well some people have more money than others, but no comm consuls…?"
Vorkosigan was diverted from his interrogation. "Is not owning a comm consul the lowest standard of living you can imagine?" He said in wonder.
"It's the first article in the constitution! 'Access to information shall not be abridged.'"
"Cordelia, these people barely have access to food, clothing and shelter. They have a few rags and cooking pots and squat in buildings that aren't economical to repair or tear down yet with the wind whistling through the walls."
"No air conditioning?"
"No heat in the winter is a bigger problem here."
"I suppose so. You people don't really have summer. How do they call for help when they are sick or hurt?"
"What help?" Vorkosigan was growing grim. "If they're s ~ Lois McMaster Bujold
Moral Philosophy quotes by Lois McMaster Bujold
Life's big questions are big in the sense that they are momentuous. However, contrary to appearances, they are not big in the sense of being unanswerable. It is only that the answers are generally unpalatable. There is no great mystery, but there is plenty of horror. ~ David Benatar
Moral Philosophy quotes by David Benatar
[A} maxim's legal character must be intrinsic: it must have what I shall call 'lawlike form.' this is why legal character, or universality, must be understood as lawlike form, that is, as a requirement of universalizability. ~ Christine M. Korsgaard
Moral Philosophy quotes by Christine M. Korsgaard
Men, in so far as they live in obedience to reason necessarily do only such things as are necessarily good for human nature, and consequently for each individual man. ~ Baruch Spinoza
Moral Philosophy quotes by Baruch Spinoza
Some of the conclusions that I draw are very different from the ethical views most people hold today. That, however, is not a ground for dismissing them. If every proposal for reform in ethics that differed from accepted moral views had been rejected for that reason alone, we would still be torturing heretics, enslaving members of conquered races, and treating women as the property of their husbands. ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
For though men be ignorant, yet they are men ~ Baruch Spinoza
Moral Philosophy quotes by Baruch Spinoza
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. ~ Francis Bacon
Moral Philosophy quotes by Francis Bacon
It's the love of right lures men to wrong. ~ Kim Stanley Robinson
Moral Philosophy quotes by Kim Stanley Robinson
Democracy may have arisen in the West as the way of striving for the universal aspiration to dignity and freedom, but it isn't alien to the underlying concepts that infuse religion and moral philosophy everywhere. ~ Flora Lewis
Moral Philosophy quotes by Flora Lewis
Intrinsic personal value - the foundation of ethical value - starts when our individual life journeys begin. It ends only with the cessation of our existence. ~ John F. Kavanaugh S.J.
Moral Philosophy quotes by John F. Kavanaugh S.J.
It should be apparent that the belief in objectivity in journalism, as in other professions, is not just a claim about what kind of knowledge is reliable. It is also a moral philosophy, a declaration of what kind of thinking one should engage in, in making moral decisions. It is, moreover, a political commitment, for it provides a guide to what groups one should acknowledge as relevant audiences for judging one's own thoughts and acts. ~ Michael Schudson
Moral Philosophy quotes by Michael Schudson
Like prepositional phrases, certain structural arrangements in English are much more important than the small bones of grammar in its most technical sense. It really wouldn't matter much if we started dropping the s from our plurals. Lots of words get along without it anyway, and in most cases context would be enough to indicate number. Even the distinction between singular and plural verb forms is just as much a polite convention as an essential element of meaning. But the structures, things like passives and prepositional phrases, constitute, among other things, an implicit system of moral philosophy, a view of the world and its presumed meanings, and their misuse therefore often betrays an attitude or value that the user might like to disavow.
~ Richard Mitchell
Moral Philosophy quotes by Richard Mitchell
How recognisable, how familiar to us, is the man so beautifully portrayed in the 'groundwork', who confronted even with Christ turns away to consider the judgement of his own conscience and to hear the voice of his own reason...This man is with us still, free, independent, lovely, powerful, rational, responsible, brave, the hero of so many novels and books of moral philosophy. The raison detre of this attractive but misleading creature is not far to seek. He is the offspring of the age of science, confidently rational, and yet increasingly aware of his alienation from the material universe which his discoveries reveal... his alienation from the material universe which his discoveries reveal..his alienation is without cure... It is not such a long step from Kant to Neitzsche to existentialism, and the Anglo-Saxon ethical doctrines which in some ways closely resemble it.... In fact, Kant's man had already received a glorious incarnation nearly a century earlier in the work of Milton: his proper name is Lucifer. ~ Iris Murdoch
Moral Philosophy quotes by Iris Murdoch
Without ethics, a human race falls to inhumanity. Ethics determines your real value in this world and the hereafter. ~ Nazim Ambalath
Moral Philosophy quotes by Nazim Ambalath
In proposing a solution to the problem of the individual and the community, Marx was contributing to a tradition in moral philosophy going back at least to Plato. Plato had argued that personal happiness is to be found in virtuous conduct and in serving one's community. He thus found harmony between the individual's interest in happiness and the needs of the community. But Plato's arguments did not convince later philosophers. ~ Anonymous
Moral Philosophy quotes by Anonymous
Forget all labels and simply live as a human, and you'll have all the morality in you - this morality is text-less - it is law-less - it is boundless - it's simply your whole being, beyond conditioning, beyond norms, beyond stereotypes, beyond definitions, beyond theories, beyond intellectualism, beyond ideologies, beyond sects and beyond images. That morality has no Naskar in it - it has no Nietzsche in it - it has no Schopenhauer in it - it has no bible, no quran, no vedas in it - nor has it any messiah or prophet whatsoever. ~ Abhijit Naskar
Moral Philosophy quotes by Abhijit Naskar
It will be said that, although God's law is inscribed in our hearts, Scripture is nevertheless the Word of God, and it is no more permissible to say of Scripture that it is mutilated and contaminated than to say this of God's Word. In reply, I have to say that such objectors are carrying their piety too far, and are turning religion into superstition; indeed, instead of God's Word they are beginning to worship likenesses and images, that is, paper and ink. ~ Baruch Spinoza
Moral Philosophy quotes by Baruch Spinoza
It is not enough to be nice; you have to be good. We are attracted by nice people; but only on the assumption that their niceness is a sign of goodness. ~ Roger Scruton
Moral Philosophy quotes by Roger Scruton
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. ~ John Stuart Mill
Moral Philosophy quotes by John Stuart Mill
Was the excellence of Socrates or of Shakespeare normal? Was it not rather abnormal, extraordinary? It is, I think, obvious in the first place, that not all that is good is normal; that, on the contrary, the abnormal is often better than the normal... ~ G.E. Moore
Moral Philosophy quotes by G.E. Moore
Just as we will spend large sums to preserve cities like Venice, even though future generations conceivably may not be interested in such architectural treasures, so we should preserve wilderness even though it is possible that future generations will care little for it. ~ Peter Singer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Peter Singer
It is a strange notion that the acknowledgment of a first principle is inconsistent with the admission of secondary ones. To inform a traveler respecting the place of his ultimate destination, is not to forbid the use of land-marks and direction-posts on the way. The proposition that happiness is the end and aim of morality, does not mean that no road ought to be laid down to that goal, or that persons going thither should not be advised to take one direction rather than another. Men really ought to leave off talking a kind of nonsense on this subject, which they would neither talk nor listen to on other matters of practical concernment. Nobody argues that the art of navigation is not founded on astronomy, because sailors cannot wait to calculate the Nautical Almanack. Being rational creatures, they go to sea with it ready calculated; and all rational creatures go out upon the sea of life with their minds made up on the common questions of right and wrong, as well as on many of the far more difficult questions of wise and foolish. And this, as long as foresight is a human quality, it is to be presumed they will continue to do. Whatever we adopt as the fundamental principle of morality, we require subordinate principles to apply it by: the impossibility of doing without them, being common to all systems, can afford no argument against any one in particular: but gravely to argue as if no such secondary principles could be had, and as if mankind had remained till now, and always ~ John Stuart Mill
Moral Philosophy quotes by John Stuart Mill
the euro, it seems, is stuck in a political no man's land – trapped between two opposing world views. And the battleground is not economics, but ethics. ~ Martin Cohen
Moral Philosophy quotes by Martin Cohen
I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. ... The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out of the soul's yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail. Of that I am perfectly convinced. ~ Albert Einstein
Moral Philosophy quotes by Albert Einstein
Our country, our people, and our laws have to be our top priority. ~ Donald J. Trump
Moral Philosophy quotes by Donald J. Trump
Christianity is not only the revelation of truth, but also the fountain of holiness under the unceasing inspiration of the spotless example of its Founder, which is more powerful than all the systems of moral philosophy. It attests its divine origin as much by its moral workings as by its pure doctrines. By its own inherent energy, without noise and commotion, without the favor of circumstance - nay, in spite of all possible obstacles, it has gradually wrought the greatest moral reformation, we should rather say, regeneration of society which history has ever seen while its purifying, ennobling, and cheering effects upon the private life of countless individuals are beyond the reach of the historian, though recorded in God's book of life to be opened on the day of judgment. To appreciate this work, we must first review the moral condition of heathenism in its mightiest embodiment in history. ~ Philip Schaff
Moral Philosophy quotes by Philip Schaff
For we conceive it as the aim of a philosopher, as such, to do somewhat more than define and formulate the common normal opinions of mankind. His function is to tell men what they ought to think, rather than what they do think: he is expected to transcend Common Sense in his premises, and is allowed a certain divergence from Common Sense in his conclusions. It is true that the limits of this deviation are firmly, though indefinitely, fixed: the truth of a philosopher's premises will always be tested by the acceptability of his conclusions: if in any important point he be found in flagrant conflict with common opinion, his method is likely to be declared invalid. Still, though he is expected to establish and concatenate at least the main part of the commonly accepted moral rules, he is not necessarily bound to take them as the basis on which his own system is constructed. Rather, we should expect that the history of Moral Philosophy--so far at least as those whom we may call orthodox thinkers are concerned--would be a history of attempts to enunciate, in full breadth and clearness, those primary intuitions of Reason, by the scientific application of which the common moral thought of mankind may be at once systematized and corrected. ~ Henry Sidgwick
Moral Philosophy quotes by Henry Sidgwick
Good, then, is indefinable.... ~ G.E. Moore
Moral Philosophy quotes by G.E. Moore
Neither party has God on its side, a monopoly on good ideas, or a lock on any single fiscal, social, or moral philosophy. ~ Michael Bloomberg
Moral Philosophy quotes by Michael Bloomberg
I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate. ~ Michel De Montaigne
Moral Philosophy quotes by Michel De Montaigne
Animals (human and nonhuman) feel pain, can suffer, and ought to be treated accordingly – pain and suffering are always of moral concern. ~ Lisa Kemmerer
Moral Philosophy quotes by Lisa Kemmerer
We need a moral philosophy in which the concept of love, so rarely mentioned now by philosophers, can once again be made central. ~ Iris Murdoch
Moral Philosophy quotes by Iris Murdoch
The gentleman understands what is moral. The small man understands what is profitable. ~ Confucius
Moral Philosophy quotes by Confucius
If you're an Orthodox believer, then what sustains this framework is the obligation that you follow. But if you live in a democratic, liberal world whose motto is: "Make choices and manage your choices according to what is good for you," then there is a built-in tension between that which connects and that which divides. Between the material and the intellectual or ethical. Materialism is not a dirty word, but in this tension between the individual and the material on the one hand, and the communal and the ethical on the other, we are at the end of an age in which the material and the individual are triumphing. ~ Kalid Gilad
Moral Philosophy quotes by Kalid Gilad
...most gentlemen of breeding considered themselves amateurs at all kinds of disciplines. Go all the way back to Jefferson, who collected fossils and wrote about botany and invented household tools and studied animals. He was an amateur anthropologist and even an amateur theologian who famously cut all the miracles out of the New Testament because he thought Jesus made a whole lot more sense without the supernatural material mucking up the good moral philosophy. ~ Jack Hitt
Moral Philosophy quotes by Jack Hitt
I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Moral Philosophy quotes by Thomas Jefferson
I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go . ~ John Stuart Mill
Moral Philosophy quotes by John Stuart Mill
All work is an act of philosophy. And when men will learn to consider productive work - and that which is its source - as the standard of their moral values, they will reach that state of perfection which is the birthright they lost.. ~ Ayn Rand
Moral Philosophy quotes by Ayn Rand
Inexperienced in the course of world affairs and incapable of being prepared for all the chances that happen in it, I ask myself only 'Can you also will that your maxim should become a universal law?' Where you cannot it is to be rejected... ~ Immanuel Kant
Moral Philosophy quotes by Immanuel Kant
Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance. ~ Vaclav Havel
Moral Philosophy quotes by Vaclav Havel
We must recognize the fact that philosophy at the present time is entirely at an impasse concerning the problem of the origin of values. This theoretical failure is reflected in the practical antinomy between submission and rebellion that infects the daily concerns of education, politics, and ethics. If no decision can be made at this level, we must retrace our steps, extricate ourselves from the impasse, and try to gain access, by means of a nonethical approach, to the problem of autonomy and obedience. ~ Paul Ricoeur
Moral Philosophy quotes by Paul Ricoeur
Sexual Selection Quotes «
» Far East Quotes