Quotes About Ethics

It is a meritocracy. It is hierarchical, and the hierarchy is moral. In this hierarchy, some people have authority over others and their authority is legitimate. Moreover

Morally based framing is everybody's job. Especially reporters'.

The differences are not about efficiency, or practicality, or economics, and they cannot be settled by rational argument about effective administration. They are ethical opinions about what makes good people and a good nation. What

Strict Father morality requires that there are natural, strict, uniform, unchanging standards of behavior that must be followed if society is to function. Another

Irresponsible corporations win big from tort reform.

The entailments of this metaphorical mode of thought are quite considerable: Moral standards that change with time, or social situation, or ethnicity are a danger to the functioning of society. There is no such thing as progress in morality; what is and is not moral is fixed for all time, and any change of standards in the name of would-be moral progress is really an evil, a chipping away at our moral foundations, a tearing of our moral fabric, and so on.

By Strict Father morality, harsh prison terms for criminals and life imprisonment for repeat offenders are the only moral options.

What exactly is moral focus? It is giving moral priority to one particular domain of interest over others. The result is that one domain is seen as having primary moral significance over other domains. Thus

Global warming is the greatest moral issue facing our generation. Accelerating wealth accumulation by the wealthy is a close runner-up. Together, they present a clear and present danger, not just to the United States, but to the world.

Liberals have a moral system. It is described explicitly in this book. It is organized not around adherence to specific rules, but around a higher principle: Help, don't harm! It is an ethics of care, centering around empathy together with responsibility, both for oneself and others.

Since most of our moral understanding comes, via metaphor, from a broad range of other domains of experience, and since we apply those metaphors to a number of different experiential domains, we should be wary of trying to compartmentalize ethics. The cross-domain mappings of the metaphors suggest the intricate web of connections that impose our moral ideas on other aspects of our lives, including considerations that are technical, scientific, political, aesthetic, religious, and social.

The priority list is: 1. The Strength Group 2. Moral Self-Interest 3. Moral Nurturance It

Therefore, we all start out morally weak, that is, with an overwhelming tendency to do immoral things. Unless our parents intervene to discipline us, we will naturally become immoral. This

Finally, there is the conservative view of the moral hierarchy. As we have seen, the rich and those who can take care of themselves are considered more moral than the poor and those who need help. But moral superiority on a wider scope is central to conservative thought.

But the facts have to be framed in appropriately moral terms so that they can be taken seriously.

While it is not impossible to have a Nurturant Parent rationalist morality (perhaps certain versions of utilitarianism are of this sort), Reason is not typically understood as a nurturer. Reason commands, lays down the law, gives orders, judges, reprimands, and so on. We almost never conceive of it as nurturing, feeling, caring, and so forth.

But for conservatives, the very idea that the private depends on the public is anathema—immoral.

At issue is what freedom is supposed to mean, what democracy is supposed to mean, and what personhood is supposed to be.

A man having an affair is acceptable, women are called characterless. Why?

When people ask me about what I learned from martial arts, I don't talk about favorite punches or kicks, or about fights won or lost. I talk about learning self-discipline, about ethics and manners and benevolence and fairness.

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.

The struggle for morality never stays won. It's always in process.

I won the Daytona 500. I won these races twice. I knew I didn't need anything cheating on my part.

I'm a crack shot and I've won medals for shooting. But I don't think I could shoot a person.