Wisdom Quotes

"Moral reasoning requires that we understand ourselves within a context of practices and traditions."

"The goods of human life are not arbitrary preferences but real possibilities for human flourishing."

"The virtues are context-dependent; what counts as virtue varies across different practices and traditions."

"To understand virtue is to understand it in relation to the human telos, the proper end of human life."

"A practice is a human activity governed by internal standards of excellence."

"Virtues are not mere rules or habits but deep dispositions that enable human excellence."

"Self-respect is perhaps the most important primary good."

"The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance about one's position in society."

"Citizens in a well-ordered society view the principles of justice as expressing their own deepest convictions."

"Justice as fairness avoids both utilitarianism and libertarian extremes."

"Rational persons behind the veil of ignorance would choose justice as fairness."

"Reasonable disagreement about the good life is compatible with agreement on principles of justice."

"The original position is a device of representation for thinking about fair principles of justice."

"The concept of a fair distribution depends on the purpose of the distribution scheme."

"Rawls believed that justice could be presented as a form of fairness acceptable to all reasonable citizens."

"Our beliefs form an interconnected network; no single belief stands alone."

"Posits are justified by their utility in our overall system of beliefs."

"We should embrace indeterminacy rather than seek false precision."

"The universe of discourse is something we create, not discover."

"The web of belief is holistic—pulling one strand affects all others."

"We construct our ontology to best suit our purposes."

"Logical truth is true in all possible worlds we care to imagine."

"We should preserve our most useful theories at the cost of revising others."

"We should be suspicious of distinctions that cannot be operationally defined."

"Our best theory of the world determines what we should believe exists."

"We adopt the simplest theory consistent with our observations."

"We should quantify over whatever we need to make our best theories true."

"No theory is true in isolation; truth is holistic and systematic."

"The world underdetermines all our theories—choose the most useful one."

"We must distinguish between questions of fact and questions of framework choice."