The moral law is simply the way we think our own freedom as self-determination. — Allen W. Wood Character Copy Share Image
Freedom is an unprovable but unavoidable presupposition, not an article of faith. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
There is a lot in Adam Smith that reflects the insights of Rousseau and anticipates those of Marx. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
What I most fear now is that within a century or so there may not be any human future at all. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Capitalism has not proven to be a transitional form, a gateway to a higher human future. — Allen W. Wood Capitalism Copy Share Image
We can't coherently deny, or even decline to affirm, that we are free. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We usually can't know how, and we probably should not even ask, how our lives contribute to a better world. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
That Hegel's theory is derivative from Fichte's does not prevent it from being strikingly original and of independent value. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
In any matter of moral importance, our first task, before we plunge ahead and decide what to do, is to figure out… — Allen W. Wood Character Copy Share Image
Leaders of nations, and people whose wealth or fame gives them power over the lives of others quite often do more harm… — Allen W. Wood Fame Copy Share Image
Notice that tearing oneself out of the insensible state is the opposite of remaining in it; the man who is beneficent from… — Allen W. Wood Duty Copy Share Image
Kant does represents a distinctively modern view of the human condition in contrast to that of ancient high culture, found in ancient… — Allen W. Wood Ancient Copy Share Image
Kant did think he had a moral route back to rational faith in God, for those who need it, and he thought… — Allen W. Wood Faith in god Copy Share Image
Our procedures of deliberation are not ways of finding out independent moral truths but instead ways of "constructing" these truths, in the… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
When Marx, in the Theses on Feuerbach, says that only idealism up to now has understood the active side of material Praxis,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is a culturally interesting (but also deeply depressing) fact that many religious claims seem to retain their emotional power for believers… — Allen W. Wood Believer Copy Share Image
Being aware of truths about what is good or right or about what we ought to do is not the same as… — Allen W. Wood Apprehension Copy Share Image
Capitalism now seems more likely a swamp, a bog, a quicksand in which humanity is presently flailing about, unable to extricate itself,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Consequentialist theories pretend that we can set some great big ends (the general happiness, human flourishing), provide ourselves with definite enough conceptions… — Allen W. Wood Action Copy Share Image
As I understand it, Kantian constructivism is partly a position in normative ethics and partly a position in metaethics. In metaethics, it… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
I could identify for virtually every important figure in the history of modern continental philosophy an idea (or more than one) absolutely… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is often difficult to know about one's own era which philosophers in it will be remembered as the most important ones,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Marx's own illusion was to think that the working class movement, which he devoted his life to creating and strengthening, would both… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is absurd for anyone to think that Soviet "Marxism" is a correct application of the thought of Karl Marx. No doubt… — Allen W. Wood Absurd Copy Share Image
Kant does not think there is anything wrong with being beneficent from sympathy. He thinks we have a duty to cultivate sympathetic… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
“Lovers of freedom are, of course, also by and large lovers of tolerance and permissiveness. Being tolerant and permissive, especially toward others,… — Allen W. Wood Character Copy Share Image
Smith could not be expected to have anticipated the horrors that were to come. But even in his own time, he was… — Allen W. Wood Action Copy Share Image
As with many metaphysical and religious questions, Kant thinks they lie beyond our power to answer them. If you can't stand the… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant regards the universalizability test for maxims as focused on a very special sort of situation: one where the agent is tempted… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
If we decide rightly what to do, or use a correct procedure for making such decisions, that has to be because the… — Allen W. Wood Apprehension Copy Share Image
We are generally forced to choose one way or the other of distancing ourselves from Kant. I suppose I tend to choose… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Sometimes when a philosopher's views are widely rejected by the world, the fault is not with the philosopher but with the world. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Consequentialist theories begin with a very simple and undoubtedly valid point: Every action aims at a future end, and is seen as… — Allen W. Wood Action Copy Share Image
Kant's system of duties constitutes a Doctrine of Virtue because the duties also indicate what kinds of attitudes, dispositions and feelings are… — Allen W. Wood Attitude Copy Share Image
Kant certainly was sympathetic with the metaphysical tradition of rational theology that he criticized. — Allen W. Wood Metaphysical Copy Share Image
The species of anti-Enlightenment religion we find among evangelical protestants is far more impoverished, anti-intellectual and downright wretched. — Allen W. Wood Enlightenment Copy Share Image
Kant attempted to work out a view of religion and religious belief according to which existing religions could be brought into harmony… — Allen W. Wood Belief Copy Share Image
Marx's writings still have something to teach us about capitalism. They have little or nothing to teach us about any alternatives to… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
