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Quote by Derek Parfit

“Normativity, I believe, is very different from motivating force. Neither includes, or implies, the other. Other animals can be motivated by their desires and beliefs. Only we can understand and respond to reasons.”

Quote by Derek Parfit

Author

Philosopher known for his contributions to moral philosophy and metaphysics. Parfit's work involves the analysis of personal identity, moral principles, and rational choice. more

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“While reasons are provided by the facts,...rationality...depends instead on our beliefs. [...] [I]f I believe falsely that my hotel is on fire, it may be rational for me to jump into the canal. But I have no reason to jump. I merely think I do. And, if some dangerous treatment would save your life, but you don't know that fact, it would be irrational for you to take this treatment, but that is what you have most reason to do.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Believe May Reason Facts Would Be Action Belief I Believe Moral Psychology Fire Dangerous Depends Ethics Rational Hotel Treatment No Reason Irrational Rationality Canals

Author:Derek Parfit

“I've decided to do it, for the pure and simple reason that I just think it's the right thing to do.”

Thinking Reason Action Simple Moral Psychology Pure Ethics Decided Things To Do Right Thing

Author:Charlie Crist

“It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.”

Action Belief Moral Psychology Ethics Agents Virtuous Evident Deserving

Book:Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

Source: Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

“must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely.”

Thinking Reason Action Moral Psychology Ethics Valuable Acknowledge

Book:Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

Source: Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic

“In every case, we ought to act that part towards another, which we would judge to be right in him to act toward us, if we were in his circumstances and he in ours; or more generally - What we approve in others, that we ought to practise in like circumstances, what we condemn in others we ought not to do.”

Ifs Action Moral Cases Psychology Judging Ought Circumstances Ethics Practise

Book:Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

Source: Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

“Common sense doesn't have the last word in ethics or anywhere else, but it has, as J. L. Austin said about ordinary language, the first word: it should be examined before it is discarded.”

Should Firsts Said Action Lasts Language Common Moral Psychology Ordinary Ethics Common Sense Last Words Discarded Austin

Book:The View From Nowhere

Source: The View From Nowhere

“My selective memory of what drinking was like told me that standing at the bar in a pub, on a summer's evening with a long, tall glass of lager and lime was heaven, and I chose not to remember the nights on which I had sat with a bottle of vodka, a gram of coke and a shotgun, contemplating suicide.”

Source: Clapton: The Autobiography

“Man was destined for society. His morality therefore was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality... The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body.”

“We are born of risen apes, not fallen angels.”

Action Born Moral Psychology Ethics Angel Fallen Apes Missiles Risen Massacres Fallen Angels

Book:The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man

Source: The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man

“Hence our verdict on these reformulated versions of St. Anselm's argument must be as follows. They cannot, perhaps, be said to prove or establish their conclusion.”

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Book:The Nature of Necessity

Source: The Nature of Necessity