The ability of humans to read meaning into patterns is the most defining characteristic we have.
Eleanor CattonRead
Whatever we, as prospective participants unaware of our specific features, would desire society to be like is what, morally speaking, we ought to institute.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that we should shape society based on our shared desires and moral considerations.
Thomas Pogge argues that we, as individuals who may not fully understand our own unique attributes or societal roles, have a moral obligation to create a society based on the collective aspirations and needs of all members. This highlights the importance of considering universal perspectives when thinking about social justice and ethical governance.
Themes
SocietyMoralityJusticeParticipationAspiration
In practice
Example use cases
In a community meeting discussing social reforms, this quote can inspire participants to consider the moral implications of their shared goals.
Similar quotes
My way of putting it is that Christians are called to live nonviolently not because we believe nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but in a world of war as faithful followers of Christ, we cannot imagine being anything other than nonviolent.
Stanley HauerwasRead
The capital phenomenon, the most catastrophic disaster, is uninterrupted sleeplessness, that nothingness without release.
Emil CioranRead
To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred.
Albert CamusRead
As words are not the things we speak about, and structure is the only link between them, structure becomes the only content of knowledge. If we gamble on verbal structures that have no observable empirical structures, such gambling can never give us any structural information about the world. Therefore such verbal structures are structurally obsolete, and if we believe in them, they induce delusions or other semantic disturbances.
Alfred KorzybskiRead
A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.
Carl JungRead