Quotes About Ethics

Morality involves how we think and act toward other sentient beings and whether our thoughts and actions are right (good) or wrong (bad) with regard to their survival and flourishing.

Morality involves how we think and act toward other moral agents in terms of whether our thoughts and actions are right or wrong with regard to their survival and flourishing.

As noted previously, a principle of moral good is this: if other persons are involved in an action, then always act with their good in mind, and never act in a way that it leads to their loss or suffering (through force or fraud).

7. The principle of reciprocal altruism—I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine"—is universal; people do not by nature give generously unless they receive something in return, even if what they receive is social status. 8. The principle of moralistic punishment—I'll punish you if you do not scratch my back after I have scratched yours—is universal; people do not long tolerate free riders who continually take but almost never give.

Perspective-taking is the psychological foundation underlying the capacity for empathy. To judge the rightness or wrongness of an action against another, one must first take the perspective of that other sentient being.

In an aptly titled article 'Two Rights Don't Make Up for a Wrong', the authors found that 'the overall goodness of a person is determined mostly by his worst bad deed.'35 Decades of devoted work for public causes can be obliterated in an instant with an extramarital affair, financial scandal or criminal act.

Accepting evolution does not force us to jettison our morals and ethics, and rejecting evolution does not ensure their constancy.

We have a lot to gain through furthering stem cell research, but medical breakthroughs should be fundamentally about saving, not destroying, human life. Therefore, I support stem cell research that does not destroy the embryo.

The truth is only irrelevent when its beneficial

Im for rules but when rules conflicts humanity i will stand against it at all cost

My colleague and I are journalists. ... Not of the muckraking variety, I hasten to assure you! Corruption is a necessary and time-honored concomitant of any functioning government, which we support wholeheartedly.

The privacy laws are paramount. They come before even common sense...

The Spider Hero lived his life by this maxim: He who possesses great power is burdened also with great responsibility. —

But there was only so much temptation a man could resist without losing all respect for himself.

Mother Nature is the greatest bioterrorist of them all, with no financial limitations or ethical compunctions.

The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who finally succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism. I hope this evil can be averted. —SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING, MD

We recognize in society that individual autonomy extends only up to the point that you begin to affect others.

It may be possible in the not-too-distant future to use CRISPR to create whole new species.

We are lucidly aware that achieving through mere physical force establishes the rules of a game from which there is no escape. When one grants oneself the moral justification to use force, one cannot logically deny it in one's enemies, for all moralities are relative. The dissimilarity between different human cultures alone suggests that one cannot establish universal goods and evils.

Why is it okay to put someone to death, but it's not okay for those people to do it themselves?

Where's the skill in throwing a hook loaded with tempting bait into the general vicinity of lots of perpetually hungry creatures with brains the size of mustard seeds? You might as well go to a playground, scatter Reese's peanut butter cups around, and club to death the first four year old foolish enough to approach, believing innocently that such treats are readily available in nature.

That sounds so weird: "kill yourself." It makes it sound like you tried to murder someone, only that someone is you. But killing someone is wrong, and I don't think suicide is. It's my life, right? I should be able to end it if I want to. I don't think it's a sin.

I'm not sure what a good person is, exactly. On the one hand, it could be someone who always play by the rules. But can someone follow the rules and still be a real jerk? In fact, some of the biggest idiots I know are people who follow the rules, usually because they make you feel like crap when you don't.

MichaelTobias Evolution does not condemn us. Only our choices can do that. It is imperative that we cherish, nurture, and endeavor to protect all life forms. That is the wake-up call of this generation. No environmentalist can be true to him/herself if they inflict pain on other creatures. Vegetarian ethics is basic to the last ecological frontier.