56 ideas
| 21422 | Moral self-knowledge is the beginning of all human wisdom [Kant] |
| 21408 | For any subject, its system of non-experiential concepts needs a metaphysics [Kant] |
| 21416 | Philosophers should not offer multiple proofs - suggesting the weakness of each of them [Kant] |
| 13342 | Carnap defined consequence by contradiction, but this is unintuitive and changes with substitution [Tarski on Carnap] |
| 13251 | Each person is free to build their own logic, just by specifying a syntax [Carnap] |
| 22355 | In the realist view, the real external world explains how it (and perceptions of it) are possible [Williams,B] |
| 21410 | That a concept is not self-contradictory does not make what it represents possible [Kant] |
| 4244 | It is very confused to deduce a nonrelativist morality of universal toleration from relativism [Williams,B] |
| 4243 | Our ability to react to an alien culture shows that ethical thought extends beyond cultural boundaries [Williams,B] |
| 21421 | Within nature man is unimportant, but as moral person he is above any price [Kant] |
| 21415 | Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect [Kant] |
| 4114 | Philosophers try to produce ethical theories because they falsely assume that ethics can be simple [Williams,B] |
| 4128 | Intuitionism has been demolished by critics, and no longer looks interesting [Williams,B] |
| 4132 | The category of person is a weak basis for ethics, because it is not fixed but comes in degrees [Williams,B] |
| 21409 | Moral principles do not involve feelings [Kant] |
| 4134 | The weakness of prescriptivism is shown by "I simply don't like staying at good hotels" [Williams,B] |
| 4135 | Some ethical ideas, such as 'treachery' and 'promise', seem to express a union of facts and values [Williams,B] |
| 21431 | The love of man is required in order to present the world as a beautiful and perfect moral whole [Kant] |
| 21437 | All morality directs the will to love of others' ends, and respect for others' rights [Kant] |
| 21429 | The duty of love is to makes the ends of others one's own [Kant] |
| 4120 | It is an error of consequentialism to think we just aim at certain states of affairs; we also want to act [Williams,B] |
| 4252 | Promise keeping increases reliability, by making deliberation focus on something which would be overlooked [Williams,B] |
| 4116 | A weakness of contractual theories is the position of a person of superior ability and power [Williams,B] |
| 21411 | A duty of virtue is a duty which is also an end [Kant] |
| 21413 | Virtue is strong maxims for duty [Kant] |
| 21414 | The supreme principle of virtue is to find universal laws for ends [Kant] |
| 21436 | We are obliged to show the social virtues, but at least they make a virtuous disposition fashionable [Kant] |
| 4112 | A crucial feature of moral thought is second-order desire - the desire to have certain desires [Williams,B] |
| 21419 | If virtue becomes a habit, that is a loss of the freedom needed for adopting maxims [Kant] |
| 21417 | How do we distinguish a mean? The extremes can involve quite different maxims [Kant] |
| 21420 | If virtue is the mean between vices, then virtue is just the vanishing of vice [Kant] |
| 21418 | There is one principle of virtues; the virtues are distinguished by their objects [Kant] |
| 21425 | We can love without respect, and show respect without love [Kant] |
| 21427 | Respect is limiting our self-esteem by attending to the human dignity of other persons [Kant] |
| 21430 | Disrespect is using a person as a mere means to my own ends [Kant] |
| 21428 | Respect is purely negative (of not exalting oneself over others), and is thus a duty of Right [Kant] |
| 21426 | Love urges us to get closer to people, but respect to keep our distance [Kant] |
| 21434 | We must respect the humanity even in a vicious criminal [Kant] |
| 4113 | 'Deon' in Greek means what one must do; there was no word meaning 'duty' [Williams,B] |
| 4250 | The concept of a 'duty to myself' is fraudulent [Williams,B] |
| 4110 | Obligation and duty look backwards (because of a promise or job), although the acts are in the future [Williams,B] |
| 4248 | Not all moral deliberations lead to obligations; some merely reveal what 'may' be done [Williams,B] |
| 4249 | "Ought implies can" is a famous formula in connection with moral obligation [Williams,B] |
| 4121 | Why should I think of myself as both the legislator and the citizen who follows the laws? [Williams,B] |
| 4122 | If the self becomes completely impartial, it no longer has enough identity to worry about its interests [Williams,B] |
| 4124 | Utilitarian benevolence involves no particular attachments, and is immune to the inverse square law [Williams,B] |
| 4245 | Ethical conviction must be to some extent passive, and can't just depend on the will and decisions [Williams,B] |
| 4246 | Taking responsibility won't cure ethical uncertainty by; we are uncertain what to decide [Williams,B] |
| 21412 | Humans are distinguished from animals by their capacity to set themselves any sort of end [Kant] |
| 21435 | Man is both social, and unsociable [Kant] |
| 21433 | Violation of rights deserves punishment, which is vengeance, rather than restitution [Kant] |
| 4247 | It is a mark of our having ethical values that we aim to reproduce them in our children [Williams,B] |
| 4131 | Most women see an early miscarriage and a late stillbirth as being very different in character [Williams,B] |
| 21423 | Men can only have duties to those who qualify as persons [Kant] |
| 21424 | Cruelty to animals is bad because it dulls our empathy for pain in humans [Kant] |
| 4133 | Speciesism isn't like racism, because the former implies a viewpoint which belongs to no one [Williams,B] |