10 quotes
The implication of painism is that political policies should extend to individuals of all nations, races, and species on an 'equal pain equal treatment' basis.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
In judging who are the maximum sufferers politicians must, today, cast their eyes around the whole globe and take into account the sufferings of all races, religions and species.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
Idealism itself can become dangerous. But going too far in the other direction, towards relativism, amoral expediency and opportunism, is equally perilous.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
[The] habit of totalling pains and pleasures across individuals is one of the main errors in ethics today.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
Are there then any moral foundations on which we can all agree, at least to some extent? I believe there are and that they are these: pain is bad, and so, causing unnecessary pain to others is wrong.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
Just as nobody pursues happiness in order to find anything other than happiness, so nobody strives to reduce pain to reduce anything other than pain. Pain is always at the end of the track: it is the ultimate and essential badness. 'Painful' and 'bad' are synonymous in the mind of the child and, at a basic level, in all our minds.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
[C]ertain moral imperatives are, rightly, considered to transcend national boundaries. What, after all, is so imperative about geography? Suffering is global.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
[P]olitical policy should be based, not upon mere opinion, nor upon a set of knee jerk reflexes, but upon a scientific concern for the facts and an intelligent and open moral argument.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
A sound moral argument requires both factual and moral premises. Yet there has been little intelligent dialogue at either level. The mumbling of slogans must no longer suffice. We must demand more of our leaders …
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)
[W]hat, ultimately, should politics be aiming for? What is the underlying moral objective? … None of the traditional political ideals … provides a satisfactory moral basis for politics today.
Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)