23282
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If all that matters in morality is motive and intention, that makes moral luck irrelevant [Williams,B]
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Full Idea:
The idea that one's whole life can be immune to luck has not prevailed (e.g. in Christianity), …but its place has been taken by the idea that moral value can be immune, …if it is motive that counts, and in actions it is not worldly changes but intention.
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From:
Bernard Williams (Moral Luck [1976], p.20)
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A reaction:
[compressed] That is, that Kant offers a way to make luck irrelevant to morality. Williams disagrees, but says at least Kant offers 'solace to a sense of the world's unfairness'.
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7399
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Even without religion, there are many guides to morality [Bacon]
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Full Idea:
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not.
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From:
Francis Bacon (17: Of Superstition [1625], p.52)
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A reaction:
One might add to Bacon's list 'contracts', or 'rational consistency', or 'self-evident human excellence', or 'natural sympathy'. This is a striking idea, which clearly made churchmen uneasy when atheism began to spread.
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