Derek Parfit Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 11 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Derek Parfit.
Famous Quotes By Derek Parfit
If there were no such normative truths, nothing would matter, and we would have no reasons to try to decide how to live. Such decisions would be arbitrary. We would not be the animals that can understand and respond to reasons. In a world without reasons, we would act only on our instincts and desires, living as other animals live. The Universe would not contain rational beings. — Derek Parfit
Normativity, I believe, is very different from motivating force. Neither includes, or implies, the other. Other animals can be motivated by their desires and beliefs. Only we can understand and respond to reasons. — Derek Parfit
My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air. — Derek Parfit
Criticizing himself again, Sidgwick writes: I am not an original man: and I think less of my own thoughts every day. — Derek Parfit
What now matters most is that we avoid ending human history. If there are no rational beings elsewhere, it may depend on us and our successors whether it will all be worth it, because the existence of the Universe will have been on the whole good. — Derek Parfit
This part of Kant's view is, I believe, a profound truth. We can be morally responsible in several other ways, or senses, but no one could ever be responsible, I believe, in any way that could make them deserve to suffer. Nor, I believe, does anyone deserve to be less happy. — Derek Parfit
It is not enough to ask, 'Will my act harm other people?' Even if the answer is No, my act may still be wrong, because of its effects on other people. I should ask, 'Will my act be one of a set of acts that will together harm other people?' The answer may be Yes. And the harm to others may be great. If this is so, I may be acting very wrongly, like the Harmless Torturers. — Derek Parfit
No question is more sublime than why there is a Universe: why there is anything rather than nothing — Derek Parfit
We might neglect our future selves because of some failure of belief or imagination. — Derek Parfit
While reasons are provided by the facts, ... rationality ... depends instead on our beliefs. [ ... ] [I]f I believe falsely that my hotel is on fire, it may be rational for me to jump into the canal. But I have no reason to jump. I merely think I do. And, if some dangerous treatment would save your life, but you don't know that fact, it would be irrational for you to take this treatment, but that is what you have most reason to do. — Derek Parfit