Leon Kass Quotes

Right and wrong are not simply matters of evolutionary impacts and what is natural.

Moral certainty is never more than probability.

If you say morality is just what you like, you lose the metaphysical level of what in the history of philosophy is called 'categorical imperative.'

There are no moral victories.

All moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects.

Is there one specific source that determines correct morality and everybody should follow that? Or should individuals come up with following that source or not depending on their situation?

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise.

I always end up taking people that are morally ambiguous.

We don't have some message from God that gives us a list of what's good and what's not good. Obviously, we have to make our own flawed judgments about each thing.

Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some individuals … while the same acts are immoral for others …

The foundations of morality are like all other foundations: If you dig too much about them, the superstructure will come tumbling down.

Must we always do our duty? If so, how are we always to know what is our duty?

One's concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one's personal interest in the issue ... Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

Kant taught us that we should follow just those rules of conduct that we would want everybody to follow. Few find this generalization of The Golden Rule a great help.

I don't believe so much in good and evil.

I do like crossing moral boundaries.

I'm not a moral relativist, I do think at the end of the day there's right and wrong, there's good intentions, and then there's bad paths that you can go on even if you have good intentions and we believe that.

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

Abstractions about right and wrong, whether they are as old as Thou Shalt Not Kill or as modern as Do Your Own Thing, often serve only to confuse and weaken genuine moral decision.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

Modern morality is all about perception.

They tend to be pretty abstract ones then, like doing what will have the best consequences; obviously you wouldn't specify what consequences are best, they may be different in some circumstances, so at a lower, more specific level, you may well get differences.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

The imperative is to define what is right and do it.