Paper Man

Quotes from whatever I'm reading

Posts tagged ethics

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Rawls:
For consider: each man in realising his own interests is certainly free to balance his own losses against his own gains ... Why should not a society act on precisely the same principle applied to the group and therefore regard that which is rational for one man as right for an association of men?
Nozick:
To use a person in this way does not sufficiently respect and take account of the fact that he is a separate person, that his is the only life he has.

Filed under John Rawls robert nozick politics philosophy ethics

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Instead of asking, ‘Why is there war?’ we might ask, ‘Why is there peace?’ We can obsess not just over what we have been doing wrong but also over what we have been doing right. Because we have been doing something right, and it would be good to know what, exactly, it is.
Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature

Filed under steven pinker the better angels of our nature ethics war peace

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This statement is meant as a truism. Who would deny it? Do people really believe that they (morally) deserved to be born more gifted than others? Do they think that they morally deserved to be born a man rather than a woman, or vice versa? Do they think that they reserved to be born into a wealthier rather than into a poorer family? No.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

Filed under john rawls politics ethics rights society