“Epicurus thought of justice as an agreement to prevent people harming and being harmed.” Quote by Catherine Wilson
“We use and need to use both systems in complex political societies, and we oscillate in our commitments, because both oligarchy and rule by the will of masses have their bad points, as the ancient philosophers all knew.” NeedsUsePoliticalMassCommitmentComplexesAncientPhilosopherOligarchy Author:Catherine Wilson
“There's Hobbes, who understood in the 1640s that the sovereign is not an appointee of God, or even a figure of superior virtue and wisdom, but just a functional device whose role is to keep people from hurting and killing each other.” PeopleHurtRolesVirtueFiguresUnderstoodKillingSuperiorsDevicesSovereignHobbesKilling Each Other Author:Catherine Wilson
“Moral theory develops from the divine command theory of medieval Christian philosophy, mixed up with a bit of ancient pagan virtue theory, to the purely secular moral sentiment and interpersonal reaction theories of Smith and Hume, to Kant's attempt to restore command theory but with something supersensible in the individual rather than God as the source of authority.” PhilosophyChristianIndividualBitsMoralVirtueDivineTheorySourceAuthorityAncientReactionsCommandSentimentsSecularMedievalPaganInterpersonalHumeChristian Philosophy Author:Catherine Wilson
“We are now returning to the 18th century empirical approach with the new interest in the evolutionary basis of ethics, with 'experimental' moral philosophy and moral psychology. As a result, we understand better why moral formulas are experienced as ineluctable commands, even if there is no commander and even if the notion of an inescapable obligation is just superstition. So moral philosophy has made huge progress.” IfsMadePhilosophyInterestResultsMoralPsychologyProgressCenturyHugeApproachEthicsBasesNotionObligationCommandFormulasSuperstitionsCommanders18th CenturyMoral Philosophy Author:Catherine Wilson
“In Western Europe and North America some things are better than they were - at least relative to their moral nadirs - such as labour legislation, the opening of the professions to women, intolerance for domestic violence, but so much is still morally unacceptable - the weapons trade, cruel and unusual punishment, economic parasitism.” StillsAmericaMoralViolenceEconomicWeaponsEuropeTradeWesternProfessionPunishmentOpeningLabourUnusualRelativeIntoleranceLegislationDomestic ViolenceNorth AmericaWestern EuropeNadirCruel And Unusual Punishment Author:Catherine Wilson
“We call 'Slavery is wrong' a moral truth because there is a specific history of theoretical investigation of a particular kind of slavery. We discussed it for centuries in metaphysical, economic, biological, and philosophical terms; we listened to all the arguments pro and con, we read all the testimonies of slaves and witnesses, and we decided. Though this 'we" is not everybody on earth, or even most people, who've never thought about slavery much.” PeopleKindEarthTermMoralEconomicCenturyParticularTruth IsArgumentDecidedPhilosophicalSlaverySlaveWitnessInvestigationMetaphysicalTestimonyTheoreticalPros And Cons Author:Catherine Wilson
“Maybe we will get to this point and reach a decision one way or the other with 'Human cloning is acceptable,' but I doubt that it is ever going to happen for 'It is morally permissible to eat shrimp' or with the general formula 'Adultery is wrong,' whose intended extension is again very unclear.” WayHumansHappensDecisionDoubtOne WayFormulasAcceptableExtensionsAdulteryUnclearCloningShrimpHuman Cloning Author:Catherine Wilson
“Moral claims aren't, as a class, truth-value apt or not.” ValuesMoralClassClaims Author:Catherine Wilson
“You can reasonably make the intellectual journey from thinking it's permissible to eat shrimp to thinking it's not permissible, or vice versa, whereas our slavery journey was uni-directional. We are as certain we are not going back to that old kind of slavery as we are that we aren't going back to the geocentric universe.” ThinkingKindCertainUniverseJourneyIntellectualSlaveryVicesVice VersaShrimp Author:Catherine Wilson
“A moral rule is essentially 'advantage-reducing.' It prohibits you doing something you could do that would serve your interests at someone else's expense.” InterestMoralAdvantageExpensesReducing Author:Catherine Wilson