Quotes

If we are to be morally and ethically responsible, there can be no turning back once we find, as we have found, that some of the most basic presuppositions of these values are mistaken. Playing God is indeed playing with fire. But that is what we mortals have done since Prometheus, the patron saint of dangerous discoveries. We play with fire and take the consequences, because the alternative is cowardice in the face of the unknown.

Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign virtue: the theory and practice of equality, Cambridge, Mass., 2000, p. 446

[N]o one has the guts to say it, [but] if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn’t we? […] Evolution can be just damn cruel, and to say that we’ve got a perfect genome and there’s some sanctity [to it]? I’d like to know where that idea comes from, because it’s utter silliness.

Gregory Stock and John H. Campbell (eds.), Engineering the human germline: an exploration of the science and ethics of altering the genes we pass to our children, New York, 2000, pp. 77

There have been all the applications of science, leading to a new and more comprehensive view of man’s possible control of nature. But then there was the rediscovery of the depths and horrors of human behaviour, as revealed by Nazi extermination camps, Communist purges, Japanese treatment of captives, leading to a sobering realization that man’s control over nature applies as yet only to external nature: the formidable conquest of his own nature remains to be achieved

Julian (Julian Sorell) Huxley, New bottles for new wine, essays, London, 1957

The ideas which are here expressed so laboriously are extremely simple and should be obvious. The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.

John Maynard Keynes, The general theory of employment, interest, and money, Amherst, NY, 1936

If a man could pass thro’ Paradise in a Dream, & have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his Soul had really been there, & found that flower in his hand when he awoke – Aye! and what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kathleen Coburn, and Merton Christensen, Notebooks, New York], 1957

[A]n interest is an interest, whoever’s interest it may be.

Peter Singer, Practical ethics, Cambridge, 1993, p. 21

It is wonderful how forward some have been to look upon it as a kind of presumption and ingratitude, and rebellion, and cruelty, and I know not what besides, not to allege only, nor to own, but to suffer any one so much as to imagine, than an old-established law could in any respect be a fit object of condemnation. Whether it has been a kind of personification that has been the cause of this, as if the Law were a living creature, or whether it has been the mechanical veneration of antiquity, or what other delusion of the fancy, I shall not here enquire. For my part, I know not for what good reason it is that the merit of justifying a law when right should have been thought greater, than that of censuring it when wrong.

Jeremy Bentham, The collected works of Jeremy Bentham: A comment on the commentaries and A fragment on goverment, Oxford, 1977

Composing a “tonal row” and accompanying words of dedication for the Berlins’ guestbook, I[gor] S[travinsky] asks for an English equivalent to the Rusian “kanitel”. Literally, the word means a silver or golden skein, Isaiah says, but, commonly, a long, entangled argument—whereupon someone quotes “or ever the silver cord be loosed.” Graves lobs his back—he’s faster with words than anyone I have ever encountered—with “The Yddish is ‘magillah’, and the Greek and Latin are…”.

Robert Craft, Stravinsky: the chronicle of a friendship, 1948-1971, London., 1972, p. 254

Los lacanianos se interesan solamente por la práctica psicoanalítica: no les interesa saber si esa práctica es fundada o infundada, eficaz o ineficaz. Se ponen en la posición del terapeuta que vive de su trabajo, no del paciente que le paga la consulta. Al paciente, en cambio, debiera interesarle saber qué dicen las estadísticas acerca del poder curativo de las doscientas y pico de escuelas de terapia verbal. Al fin y al cabo, están en juego su salud mental y su billetera.

Mario Bunge, Vistas y entrevistas: propuestas concretas sobre problemas de nuestro tiempo, Buenos Aires, 1997, pp. 235-236

Una chica excepcional. Me atreví a preguntar:

—¿Y por qué usted la encontraba tan excepcional?

—Mire—me dijo—: a mí me gustaba mucho, en ese momento la prefería a cualquier otra cosa, lo que ya es encontrarla excepcional, aunque sea de acuerdo al criterio, menos arbitrario que misterioso, de nuestras preferencias.

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Descanso de caminantes, Buenos Aires, 2001, p. 25

[U]no de los secretos del “éxito” reside en empezar por adoptar posiciones bien establecidas dentro de un grupo o escuela, y luego proceder a modificarlos, por radicalmente que sea.

José Ferrater Mora, Cambio de marcha en la filosofía, Madrid, 1974, p. 109

Those who still eat flesh when they could do otherwise have no claim to be serious moralists.

Stephen R. L. Clark, The moral status of animals, Oxford ; New York, 1977, p. 47

Hegel’s system of dialectical logic has never won acceptance outside an isolated and dwindling group of incorrigible enthusiasts.

Allen W. Wood, Hegel's ethical thought, Cambridge, 1990, p. 5

Dicet fortasse aliquis, qui viderit praecedentia praecepta naturalia artificio quodam ab unico rationis, nos ad nostri conservationem & incolumitatem hortantis, dictamine derivata, adeo difficilem esse deductionem harum legum, ut exspectandum non sit, eas vulgo cognitas fore ; neque ideo obligare. Etenim leges nisi cognitae, non obligant, immo non sunt leges. Huic respondeo, verum esse, ipsem, metum, iram, ambitionem, avaritiam, gloriam, inanem, & caeteras perturbationes animi impedire, ne quis leges naturae pro eo tempore quo passiones istae prevalent, cognoscere possit. Caeterum nemo est, qui non aliquando sedato animo est. Eo igitur tempore nihil illi quamquam indocto & rudi, scitu est facilius ; unica scilicet hac regula, ut cum dubitet, id quod facturus in alterum sit, jure jacturus fit naturali, necne, putet se esse in illius alterius loco. Ibi statim perturbationes illae, quae institugabant ad faciendum, tanquam translatae in alteram trutinae lancem, a faciendo dehortabuntur. Atque haec regula non modo facilis, sed etiam dudum celebrata his verbis est, quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris.

Thomas Hobbes, Howard Warrender, and Thomas Hobbes, De Cive: the Latin version entitled in the first edition Elementorum philosophiæ sectio tertia de cive, and in later editions Elementa philosophica de cive, Oxford [Oxfordshire], 1983, § 26

Dans un Etat bien gouverné il y a peu de punitions, non parce qu’on fait beaucoup de graces, mais parce qu’il y a peu de criminels : la multitude des crimes en assure l’impunité lorsque l’Etat dépérit. Sous la République Romaine jamais le Sénat ni les Consuls ne tenterent de faire grace ; le peuple même n’en faisoit pas, quoiqu’il révocât quelquefois son propre jugement. Les fréquentes graces annoncent que bientôt les forfaits n’en auront plus besoin, & chacun voit où cela mene. Mais je sens que mon cœur murmure & retient ma plume ; laissons discuter ces questions à l’homme juste qui n’a point failli, & qui jamais n’eût lui-même besoin de grace.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social, ou principes du droit politique, Amsterdam, 1772, p. 5

De la palabra naturaleza puede observarse lo que Hegel señalaba para la expresión derecho de naturaleza, a saber: que se presenta en la historia de la filosofía como un vocablo equívoco que confunde los dos significados muy diversos de realidad inmediata y de término de aspiración ideal. Los cínicos han sido los primeros en fundar sobre la mal definida noción de lo natural las dos nociones de lo primitivo y de lo ejemplar, de lo originario y de lo ideal, de lo inicial y de lo final.

Rodolfo Mondolfo, Rousseau y la conciencia moderna, Buenos Aires, 1962, pp. 19-20

Robert Graves et al., Complete poems, Manchester : Paris, 1995

A partir de ese momento, en la fracción de la izquierda revolucionaria donde milité durante muchos años—seis o siete años muy intensos, históricamente plagados de acontecimientos—, aprendí a razonar contra todas las evidencias. Porque razonar desde esa secta marxista-leninista era hacerlo contra todas las evidencias, no las que podían ser construidas por un observador objetivo de la realidad, sino también contra las que se le aparecían a cualquiera de los compañeros que se levantaba y leía los diarios cotidianamente, que leía La Nación. Lo que había instalado el partido en todos nosotros no era la desconfianza frente a las informaciones burguesas sino, simplemente, otro sistema de datos que reemplazaba al que venía de los diarios, de los libros y de la gente. Ese partido razonaba contra todas las evidencias y por eso terminó—ese fue el momento en el que yo me fui—caracterizando al golpe de Estado del ‘76 como un golpe prosoviético; fue la culminación de un razonar contra toda evidencia.

Beatriz Sarlo, La izquierda en la Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1998, p. 226

Metaphysiker sind Musiker ohne musikalische Fähigkeit.

Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach, and Wolfgang Spohn (eds.), Erkenntnis orientated: a centennial volume for Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach, Dordrecht, 1931, p. 240

Friedrich Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, México, 1883