A Quote by Moses Finley

Historical explanation is not identical with moral judgment.

Moses Finley

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Explanation Historical Identical Judgment Moral Moral Judgment

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Moses Finley
May 20, 1912 - June 23, 1986

How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis?

Robert Jensen

Being a moral realist I see normative ethics as a search of the truth about our obligations and a search of explanation; the idea is that moral principles can help us to a moral explanation of our particular obligations.

Torbjorn Tannsjo

Since my moral system rests on my accepted version of the facts, he who denies my moral judgments or my version of the facts, is to me perverse, alien, dangerous. How shall I account for him? The opponent has always to be explained, and the last explanation that we ever look for is that he sees a different set of facts. Such an explanation we avoid, because it saps the very foundation of our own assurance that we have seen life steadily and seen it whole.

Walter Lippmann

A psychological explanation of our feelings is not a moral explanation of our conduct.

James Rachels

In every age the wisest have passed the identical judgment on life: it is worthless.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers. ...How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis?

Robert Jensen

Indiscriminate tolerance and indiscriminate condemnation are not two opposites: they are two variants of the same evasion. To declare that “everybody is white” or “everybody is black” or “everybody is neither white nor black, but gray,” is not a moral judgment, but an escape from the responsibility of moral judgment.

Ayn Rand

Moral judgment is not life-giving; love that transcends the boundaries of judgment as Jesus' love did, is.

John Shelby Spong

I look at the most promising putative moral theories. I construct crucial thought experiments in areas where they give conflicting advice. I confront their conflicting advice with my own moral sensitivity, my moral intuition. I take the theory that can best explain the content of my intuitions as gaining inductive support through an inference to the best explanation.

Torbjorn Tannsjo

I've been typed as historical fiction, historical women's fiction, historical mystery, historical chick lit, historical romance - all for the same book.

Lauren Willig

One's own independent judgment is the means by which one must choose one's actions, but it is not a moral criterion nor a moral validation; only reference to a demonstrable principle can validate one's choices.

Ayn Rand

And never - not in a single case - was the explanation, 'I was pressured to do this.' The explanation was very often, 'The limited data we had led one to reasonably conclude this. I now see that there's another explanation for it.'

David Kay

Causal analysis provides absolutely no value judgment, and a value judgment is absolutely not a causal explanation.

Max Weber

I know the world of opera so intimately: historical sweep, sharply defined characters, not too rational an explanation of what's going on. It's a feast.

James A. Michener

The moral case for gender equality is obvious. It should not need any explanation.

Paul Polman

On several occasions, we are informed that the professional ideal 'took steps', 'organised assaults', and 'selected social problems'. But this is anthropomorphic metaphor implausibly masquerading as historical explanation.

David Cannadine

A Quote by Moses Finley

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