Moral virtues and intellectual virtues are very different from each other, and moral virtue has to do with motivation, not cognition. Moral virtue requires a human level of intelligence, but it doesn't require that one be an intelligent human. — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
I am an atheist. I don't think there's anything divine. Beautiful, impressive, awe-inspiring - sure, but not divine. — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Other things being equal, ill will is worse than moral indifference (as in causing suffering for money vs causing suffering to cause suffering), though… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Duties concern things that are voluntary. I do think that if you have a moral duty to bring me back the book you borrowed,… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Sometimes I suspect that there are two prototypes of philosophers who write about humans - I call them "celestials" and "terrestrials", without implying that… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
When you find yourself reluctant to sit on a chair because it had unexpectedly collapsed in the past you might shake your head and… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
If I make a stupid decision but don't execute it because I'm, say, lazy, then I'm lucky, not rational. However, at other times a… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
If I am told my loving you had to happen because of some Freudian stuff about my childhood, that might be degrading or deflationary,… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
I am not committed in any way to the traditional concept of character - the concept of "character trait" as involving predictable behavior. I… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
I don't think any of my desires or beliefs or other mental states are external to me. Many people will occasionally feel alienated from… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Incompatibilists will tell you that a work of art has no meaning unless the artists could have chosen to create a different one, but… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Though we think intrinsic desires tend to be pretty stable, we do not think they imply anything like the amount of predictability in behavior… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
Suppose a student of mine writes in her exam that "morality is completely relative to culture, so nothing is absolutely right or wrong. Because… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
I don't think we are all irrational every time we fail to see through an argument in a book, but suppose it's true about… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
I think it's ok to have wishes that conflict with each other - it's irrational to try to make them both come true, but… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
When I see two owls and then two more owls and conclude that I see four owls, I am responding to reasons, and it… — Nomy Arpaly Copy Share Image
