Home / Books / Reasons and Persons

Reasons and Persons

Book by Derek Parfit · 1 quotes · Atheism, Consequentialism, Ethics And Moral Philosophy

Browse quotes from Reasons and Persons.

Book detail: Reasons and Persons is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.

Browse quotes from Reasons and Persons.

The quotes below use the same card format as the rest of the site, including topics, source notes, copy actions, image creation, and sharing controls.

Filter quotes by topic

All Atheism Consequentialism Ethics And Moral Philosophy Imperceptible Effects Optimism

Reasons and Persons Quotes

“Until this century, most of mankind lived in small communities. What each did could affect only a few others. But conditions have now changed. Each of us can now, in countless ways, affect countless other people. We can have real though small effects on thousands or millions of people. When these effects are widely dispersed, they may be either trivial, or imperceptible. It now makes a great difference whether we continue to believe that we cannot have greatly harmed or benefited others unless there are people with obvious grounds for resentment or gratitude.”

Consequentialism Imperceptible Effects

Book:Reasons and Persons

Source: Reasons and Persons