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Quote by Nomy Arpaly

“Moral virtues and intellectual virtues are very different from each other, and moral virtue has to do with motivation, not cognition. Moral virtue requires a human level of intelligence, but it doesn't require that one be an intelligent human.”

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Nomy Arpaly

Nomy Arpaly is a philosopher whose research focuses on moral philosophy and ethics. The specific dates of his birth and death are unknown. more

“People of relatively low intelligence can be morally wonderful if they desire the right and the good (not necessarily under the description "right" or "good"). Their low intelligence sometimes results in their accidentally doing something wrong, but doing something wrong out of low intelligence alone is like stepping on a person's foot because you are (literally) blind or missing a cry for help because you are (literally) deaf. We do not judge the blind or deaf person as morally bad.”

People Sometimes Helping Desire Wonderful Missing Cry Judging Blind Deaf

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“Virtue is about wanting right and good things, not about being particularly good at thinking.”

Thinking Virtue Good Things

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“I am not committed in any way to the traditional concept of character - the concept of "character trait" as involving predictable behavior. I am committed to a view in the neighborhood - the view that the moral worth of one's actions depends on the quality of will expressed in them.”

Character Action Quality Moral Behavior Committed Neighborhood Traits Predictable Character Trait

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“Though we think intrinsic desires tend to be pretty stable, we do not think they imply anything like the amount of predictability in behavior that traditional virtue ethics requires for someone to have a one-word-in-English character trait such as "benevolence". Other things being equal, a person with more of a desire for other people's wellbeing will do more for other people's wellbeing, but things are almost never equal.”

Thinking Character Desire Virtue Equal Behavior Ethics Traits Benevolence Wellbeing Predictability Being Equal Character Trait

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“If I make a stupid decision but don't execute it because I'm, say, lazy, then I'm lucky, not rational. However, at other times a person acts for good reasons just as she does what she thinks she shouldn't do, not knowing that they are good reasons. Just like sometimes we are a lot less rational than we think we are, it is also true that sometimes we are a lot more rational than we think we are.”

Thinking Sometimes Reason Decision Stupid Lucky Rational Lazy

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“Narrative nonfiction was not my forte. I always wanted to let my imagination run free, and the facts sometimes got in the way. At one point I wanted to illustrate Jack Prelutsky's enchanting poems. Unable to do that, I started devising and improvising my own poems, very raw at first. I immersed myself in verse, writing reams of stuff until it gelled.”

Writing Sometimes Running Imagination Verses My Imagination Enchanting

Author:Douglas Florian

“The art has to have a life of its own and not merely illustrate. I've always felt a great illustration can make a good poem even better. That's the advantage I have in illustrating my own work - I have the freedom to leap far from the poem.”

Art Leap

Author:Douglas Florian

“With time some poems just fall by the wayside. Other poems get better over time with revision, revision, revision. My ladybug poem took 10 minutes to write but was 10 years in the making.”

Writing Fall Get Better

Author:Douglas Florian

“When I was young I drew constantly in my sketchbooks to learn to see things. My first teacher in school, Gilbert Stone, taught me that you have to see things as they are first. Then you can distort, exaggerate, or re-create the world. I sketch in a small, unobtrusive sketchbook or on any paper at hand. I write on canary yellow tablets or any scrap available. I'm constantly doodling, even while editing my kids' homework, much to their chagrin!”

World Writing School Teacher Homework Scrap

Author:Douglas Florian

“Sometimes, I like to imagine the perfect reader - the reader who not just understands what I am about, but soaks up every word as if it were written for them. I have been fortunate in that I have got to meet such readers now and again.”

Sometimes Perfect Imagine

Author:Paul Lynch

Quote by Nomy Arpaly

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