Quotes About Ethics

A moral compass can convince you that all the answers are obvious (even when they're not); that there is a bright line between right and wrong (when often there isn't); and, worst, that you are certain you already know everything you need to know about a subject so you stop trying to learn more.

A person who is lying or cheating will often respond to an incentive differently than an honest person.

cuando la pose moral se ve sustituida por una valoración sincera, con frecuencia el resultado es una revelación nueva y sorprendente.

La gente no es «buena» ni «mala». Las personas son personas y responden a incentivos. Casi siempre pueden ser manipuladas —para bien o para mal— si se encuentran las palancas adecuadas.

But when it comes to solving problems, one of the best ways to start is by putting away your moral compass.

especialmente por parte de los moralistas altruistas que se han convencido de que su sensibilidad estética y la repugnancia instintiva deberían acabar con cualquier esfuerzo humano por salvar vidas.»

Decency can push almost any interaction into the cooperative frame.

La distinción entre una mujer que elige controlar su fertilidad y el gobierno que elige limitar su fertilidad es fundamental y la gente con frecuencia parece perder de vista esta diferencia.

cuanto más arriba en el escalafón se encuentran los trabajadores, más propensos a engañar son.

morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work

Se podría sugerir que la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.

Glaucon's story posed a moral question: could any man resist the temptation of evil if he knew his acts could not be witnessed? Glaucon seemed to think the answer was no. But Paul Feldman sides with Socrates and Adam Smith—for he knows that the answer, at least 87 percent of the time, is yes.

Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work—whereas economics represents how it actually does work.

Desde 1985, los estados con altos índices de aborto han experimentado una caída de aproximadamente el 30% en el crimen respecto a los estados con bajo índice de abortos.

For every clever person who goes to the trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there is an army of people, clever and otherwise, who will inevitably spend even more time trying to beat it. Cheating may or may not be human nature, but it is certainly a prominent feature in just about every human endeavor. Cheating is a primordial economic act: getting more for less.

Or, as W. C. Fields once said: a thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

So if sumo wrestlers, schoolteachers, and day-care parents all cheat, are we to assume

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good.

W. C. Fields once said: a thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

Most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others'. This doesn't make them bad people; it just makes them human.

If morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work

When people, especially politicians, start making decisions based on a reading of their moral compass, facts tend to be among the first casualties.

But as history clearly shows, most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others'.

As pessoas não são boas ou más. As pessoas são pessoas e, como tal, reagem a incentivos. Quase sempre os indivíduos são manipuláveis - para o bem ou para o mal -, bastando, para tanto, encontrar as alavancas certas.