It is actually a nice question how far Descartes himself endorses the monological and metaphysically dualistic theory of mind associated with his… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Empiricist philosophy always tends to be anti-philosophy (and is often proud of it). — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
I don't think Kant's theory looks bad to people except insofar as they have misunderstood it (for instance, as heartless and ironheaded,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant has been famous for his rejection of eudaimonism, but I think Kantian ethics has a great deal in common with Aristotle,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant can provide, and has provided, a good model for philosophers to think about the relation of metaphysics to science and scientific… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Surely the world will be a better place, at least marginally, if people have a better understanding of Kant and Hegel, if… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
“What is most remarkable about the philosophy of Kant, in my opinion, is the wide range of topics on which his thoughts… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Teaching and writing about philosophy is about the only thing I've ever been really good at. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Until I was a junior in high school, I was a "boy scientist" type and expected to go into chemistry. Then I… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
In my view, there was a long period in which analytical philosophy had little to say about ethics. I think their intellectual… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
In the mid-1960s, as hard to believe as it may be now, choosing to go into academic philosophy was not an imprudent… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
In my acquaintance with John Rawls, I found him to be a simple and honest man, who just by chance also happened… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
“In seeing the thinkers in this tradition as embodying a certain fundamental viewpoint, I am far from denying that there is disagreement between… — 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 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
What Smith and Marx have in common is that they were both philosophers of great vision and perceptiveness, deep humanity, and a… — 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
Kant does not think that the silly commandment "universalize your maxims" is the be-all and end-all of ethics or that it provides… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
I think if there were to be a solution to the problem of free will, it would have to be a compatibilist… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant's description of most ethical duties reads more like a description of moral virtues and vices. Once we see this, we see… — Allen W. Wood 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 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
Kant's treatments of rational theology and metaphysics were aimed primarily at theoretical questions. His attitude toward the pseudo-sciences of "special metaphysics" in… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
As Kant says, the contribution of any common laborer would be greater than that of the greatest philosopher unless the philosopher makes… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Philosophy is about getting the facts right, but it is also about thinking rightly about them. Philosophy is more about the latter… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
For the utilitarian, there is a fact of the matter about the good (the general happiness, or whatever conception of the good the utilitarian… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
No theory about our bodies as mere objects of observation and calculation (as distinct from partners in communicative interaction, assumed to be free) can… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kantian ethical theory distinguishes three levels: First, that of a fundamental principle (the categorical imperative, formulated in three main ways in Kant's Groundwork); second,… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Some empirical feelings, such as sympathy, are indispensable parts of certain moral virtues. — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We commit not only theoretical error but also moral wrong in objectifying ourselves or other rational beings, ignoring their capacities for free action and… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
Kant certainly was sympathetic with the metaphysical tradition of rational theology that he criticized. — 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
It is sad to witness the persistence in our society of the racism and xenophobia that seems to be a permanent part of our… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
It is rational to choose the right means to your ends to develop very elegant abstract formal theories of rational choice, and then turn… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
We can never prove that we are free or integrate our freedom in any way into our objective conception of the causal order of… — 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 to make… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
My own view is that Kant's conception of the duality of the good (morality and happiness, the good of our person and the good… — Allen W. Wood Copy Share Image
