“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.” HumansLittlesEnjoyAnimalConsciousnessMoralDoubtCenturyPositionCreaturesArgumentTraditionMachinesSpeciesFolksExtremesVersionsDefinedDecentNo DoubtHuman HistoryHomo SapiensContinuumUnfeelingMistreat Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For my part, I cannot see how consciousness can persist when its physical basis has been destroyed, and I am too sure of the interconnection of my body and my mind to think that any survival of my my consciousness apart from my body would be in any sense a survival of myself.” ThinkingMindHas BeensBodyWould BeTogetherConsciousnessAtheismSurvivalArgumentWeakBasesDestroyedImmortalityPersistInterconnection Author:W. Somerset Maugham
“There is no argument so cogent not only in demonstrating, the indestructibility of the soul, but also in showing that it always preserves in its nature traces of all its preceding states with a practical remembrance which can always be aroused. Since it has the consciousness of or knows in itself what each one calls his me. This renders it open to moral qualities, to chastisement and to recompense even after this life, for immortality without remembrance would be of no value.” KnowsSoulStatesWould BeValuesConsciousnessQualityMoralArgumentKarmaPracticalsThis LifePreservesImmortalityRemembranceDemonstratingChastisementRecompense Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Just because science so far has failed to explain something, such as consciousness, to say it follows that the facile, pathetic explanations which religion has produced somehow by default must win the argument is really quite ridiculous.” WinningConsciousnessArgumentRidiculousExplanationPatheticDefault Author:Richard Dawkins
“Niagaras of beauty are flowing by untapped by ordinary consciousness. . . . Would that we could send robots who could film these psychedelic realities. . . . The presence of so much beauty is an argument to me that truth cannot be far away.” RealityFilmConsciousnessOrdinaryArgumentFar AwayRobotsPsychedelicNiagara Author:Terence McKenna
“The Consequentialist trinity is typically regarded in this way: Bentham is crude, Mill's writings are full of howlers and inconsistencies, and Sidgwick was too smart to fully embrace Consequentialism. All of these great traditions in moral philosophy express strands of our moral consciousness and they should all be treated as research programs rather than as fully determinate views that can be leveled by a counterexample or by a clever argument.” WayShouldWritingPhilosophyViewsConsciousnessMoralSmartResearchProgramArgumentTraditionEmbraceCleverTreatedCrudeMillsTrinityStrandsInconsistencyMoral PhilosophyConsequentialism Author:Dale Jamieson
“The early feminist argument that violence against women is not inherently a private matter, but has been privatized by the sexist structures of the state, the economy, and the family has had a powerful impact on public consciousness.” PowerfulConsciousnessEconomyViolenceArgumentFeministViolence Against WomenSexist Author:Angela Davis
“Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.” MotivationalConsciousnessEnemyJudgingArgumentPhilosophicalMartial ArtsMasterySelf Mastery Author:Bruce Lee