23 quotes
What now matters most is how we respond to various risks to the survival of humanity.
On What Matters: Volume One (2011)
To be a person, a being must be self-conscious, aware of its identity and its continued existence over time.
Reasons and Persons (1984)
On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering.
On What Matters: Volume One (2011)
I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others.
Reasons and Persons (1984)
All other things being equal, the mere fact that something “isn’t done” is in itself an excellent reason for doing it.
Even if moral truths cannot affect people, they can still be truths.
To think about reality we must use concepts, and certain truths about concepts may reveal, or reflect, truths about reality.
We are paternalists when we make someone act in his own interests.
Reasons and Persons (1984)
Though everything is identical with itself, only I am me.
We live during the hinge of history.
On What Matters: Volume Two (2011)
It has been widely believed that there are such deep disagreements between Kantians, Contractualists, and Consequentialists. That, I have argued, is not true. These people are climbing the same mountain on different sides.
On What Matters: Volume One (2011)
Naturalism and Non-Cognitivism are both...close to Nihilism. Normativity is either an illusion, or involves irreducibly normative facts.
On What Matters: Volume Two (2011)
Classical Utilitarians...would claim, as Sidgwick did, that the destruction of mankind would be by far the greatest of all conceivable crimes. The badness of this crime would lie in the vast reduction of the possible sum of happiness.
Reasons and Persons (1984)
Why do we save the larger number? Because we give equal weight to saving each. Each counts for one. That is why more count for more.
Why do we save the larger number? Because we do give equal weight to saving each. Each counts for one. That is why more count for more.
What now matters most is that we rich people give up some of our luxuries, ceasing to overheat the Earth's atmosphere, and taking care of this planet in other ways, so that it continues to support intelligent life.
On What Matters: Volume One (2011)
When I consider the parts of the past of which I have some knowledge, I am inclined to believe that, in Utilitarian hedonistic terms, the past has been worth it, since the sum of happiness has been greater than the sum of suffering.
On What Matters: Volume Two (2011)
I sometimes want to kick my car[.] Since I have this anger at material objects, which is manifestly irrational, it’s easier to me to think, when I get angry with people, that this is also irrational.
Kantians, Contractualists, and Consequentialists ... are climbing the same mountain on different sides.
It’s a good reason for postponing pleasures that you will then have more time in which you can enjoy looking forward to them. I remember exactly when, at the age of eight, I changed over from eating the best bits first to eating them last.
Summary of Discussion’, Synthese, vol. 53, no. 2 (1982)