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Utilitarianism is a great idea with an awful name. It is, in my opinion, the most underrated and misunderstood idea in all of moral and political philosophy.

— Joshua Greene Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them (2013)

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More quotes by Joshua Greene

We can summarize utilitarianism thus: Happiness is what matters, and everyone's happiness counts the same. This doesn't mean that everyone gets to be equally happy, but it does mean that no one's happiness is inherently more valuable than anyone else's.

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them (2013)

Utilitarianism is a very egalitarian philosophy, asking the haves to do a lot for the have-nots. Were you to wake up tomorrow as a born-again utilitarian, the biggest change in your life would be your newfound devotion to helping unfortunate others.

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them (2013)

We have no non-question-begging way of figuring out who has which rights and which rights outweigh others. (...) When we appeal to rights, we're not making an argument; we're declaring that the argument is over.

The utilitarian argument for giving is straightforward: Going skiing instead of camping (or whatever) may increase your happiness, but it's nothing compared with the increase in happiness that a poor African child gains from clean water, food, and shelter. (...) Thus, says utilitarianism, you should spend that money helping desperately needy people rather than on luxuries for yourself.

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them (2013)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

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There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

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Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
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And pressing forward honor reality.

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In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joshua Greene (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.