Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up. The View From Nowhere (1986)
Common sense doesn't have the last word in ethics or anywhere else, but it has, as J. L. Austin said about language, the first word: it should be examined before it is discarded. The View From Nowhere (1986)
Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same external tasks as conscious beings will be recognized as a gigantic waste of time. The View From Nowhere (1986)
Ethics increases the range of what it is about ourselves that we can will—extending it from our actions to the motives and character traits and dispositions from which they arise. We want to be able to will the sources of our actions down to the very bottom. The View From Nowhere (1986)