R. M. Hare Quotes on Knowledge
Richard Mervyn Hare was a British analytic moral philosopher and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford. This page collects quotes attributed to R. M. Hare on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
Attributed to R. M. Hare:
“Moral education is the cultivation of universalizable preferences.”
-
“Ethical theory and utilitarianism , 1982, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 26”
... what the principle of utility requires of me is to do for each man affected by my actions what I wish were done for me in the hypothetical circumstances that I were in precisely his situation ; and, if my actions affect more than one man...to do what I wish, all in all, to be done for me in the hypothetical circumstances that I occupied all their situations... -
“Sorting Out Ethics , 2000, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 135”
It is said that the prescription to keep all black people in subjection is formally universal, and internally consistent, and so is not ruled out by the Categorical Imperative. But the point is: can somebody who has fully represented to himself the situation of black people who are kept in subjection go on willing that they should be so treated? For if he has fully represented this to himself, he -
“A Philosophical Autobiography, 2002, p. 269”
I had a strange dream, or half-waking vision, not long ago. I found myself at the top of a mountain in the mist, feeling very pleased with myself, not just for having climbed the mountain, but for having achieved my life’s ambition, to find a way of answering moral questions rationally. But as I was preening myself on this achievement, the mist began to clear, and I saw that I was surrounded on th