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Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character.
George Bernard Shaw
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Vivisection may contribute to knowledge but harms human integrity.

George Bernard Shaw's quote critiques vivisection, suggesting it is a moral lapse in society. While it can lead to medical advancements, it compromises ethical standards and the value of human compassion, highlighting a conflict between progress and morality in scientific endeavors.

Themes

VivisectionHuman CharacterMoralityKnowledgeSocial Evil

In practice

Example use cases

During a debate on animal rights, one might use the quote to illustrate the ethical implications of scientific testing.

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What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
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Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
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The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
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