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"They tend to be pretty abstract ones then, like doing what will have the best consequences; obviously you wouldn't specify what consequences are best, they may be different in some circumstances, so at a lower, more specific level, you may well get differences."
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Exlpore more Circumstance quotes
"If one does not interfere in the obtained worldly life, then worldly life will run straight forward & smoothly. But one keeps interfering in the obtained worldly life. From the moment he wakes up, he interferes. If there is no interference in the unfolding circumstances one has obtained, then God's control will prevail, but by interfering one takes over the control himself."
"When many circumstances come together, one will get food to eat. When many circumstances come together, one gets to go hungry (one will not get food to eat). One goes hungry when many more circumstances come together. A greater number of circumstances are needed for an unfavorable situation, and less for favorable situation."
"A person who can't pay gets another person who can't pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking-match."
"I am clearly vulnerable on the question of socializing under circumstances not appropriate for a married man."
"Should slavery be abolished there, (and it is an event, which, from these circumstances, we may reasonably expect to be produced in time) let it be remembered, that the Quakers will have had the merit of its abolition."
"Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him."
"Circumstances do not determine a man, they reveal him."
"Claims of right and insistence upon obligations may depend upon treaty stipulations, or upon the rules of international law, or upon the sense of natural justice applied to the circumstances of a particular case, or upon disputed facts."
"Circumstances give in reality to every political principle, its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind."
"Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable."
Explore more quotes by Peter Singer
"I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise."
"I'm not overly alarmist about it, but I do think there are some worrying signs, like the growing accumulation of wealth by a very small proportion of the population, plus elections in the US are much more dominated by money than anywhere else calling itself a democracy."
"You might hold an ethical position that it's wrong to lie, but if you have plans for a war in Iraq, and you want to keep them secret for practical reasons - to reduce casualties, perhaps - and someone asks you about those plans, you may need to lie for a 'good' outcome."
"I would like us to think about it more explicitly, and not take our intuitions as the given of ethics, but rather to reflect on it, and be more open about the fact that something is an ethical issues and thin what we ought to do about it."
"I suppose what's happened recently has confirmed suspicions I voiced in the book, and I think made clearer some of those things that I point out. For instance I have a section of the book where I talk about the possibility of torture."
"What you could say, and what I do argue in the book, is that he doesn't have as much concern for the lives of Iraqis as he does for the lives of Americans, or even frozen American embryos."
"I don't think there's anything in the compromise that means that there's a clash of ethics."
"At the descriptive level, certainly, you would expect different cultures to develop different sorts of ethics and obviously they have; that doesn't mean that you can't think of overarching ethical principles you would want people to follow in all kinds of places."
"Ancient recipients of instant news probably couldn't do very much about it, for instance. Xerxes would still need three months to get his army together, and he might not get home for years."
"As we realise that more and more things have global impact, I think we're going to get people increasingly wanting to get away from a purely national interest."
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