Derek Parfit Quotes
Derek Parfit was a British philosopher widely regarded as one of the most important moral philosophers of the late twentieth century. A long-serving senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, he devoted the better part of three decades to a single book, Reasons and Persons, published in 1984, and a further long labour to On What Matters, published in two volumes in 2011 with a third appearing posthumously. The quotes below are attributed to Derek Parfit, organized by topic.
Derek Parfit on Death
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Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“What is bad about my death is not that something happens to me, but that nothing more does.”
Derek Parfit on Justice
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Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“Non-identity makes a tremendous difference to the morality of policy.”
Derek Parfit on Mind
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Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“Personal identity is not what matters.”
Derek Parfit on Truth
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Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“We are climbing the same mountain on different sides.”
Derek Parfit on Virtue
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Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“What we ought to want is what we would want if we cared equally about everyone.”