What great philosophers do for us is not to hand out such an all-purpose system. It is to light up and clarify some special aspect of life, to supply conceptual tools which will do a certain necessary kind of work.… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
The symbolism of meat-eating is never neutral. To himself, the meat-eater seems to be eating life. To the vegetarian, he seems to be eating death. There is a kind of gestalt-shift between the two positions which makes it hard to… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
“Unless all that we take to be knowledge is an illusion, we must hold that in thinking we are not reading rationality into an… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
“By contrast, if one conceives the idea of human rights as centring on the notion that each individual is completely autonomous and should have… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
The world in which the kestrel moves, the world that it sees, is, and always will be, entirely beyond us. That there are such… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
Few scientists would treat their cars as badly as they treat their conceptual schemes. — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
“. . . Neither ecological nor social engineering will lead us to a conflict-free, simple path . . . Utilitarians and others who simply… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
When some portion of the biosphere is rather unpopular with the human race-a crocodile, a dandelion, a stony valley, a snowstorm, an odd-shaped flint-there… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
It is extremely urgent to try and adapt our thoughts realistically to a world which has no fixed general direction either upward or downward,… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
It is this claim to a monopoly of meaning, rather than any special scientific doctrine, that makes science and religion look like competitors today.… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
Morally as well as physically, there is only one world, and we all have to live in it — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
What great philosophers do for us is not to hand out such an all-purpose system. It is to light up and clarify some special… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
Evolution is the creation-myth of our age. By telling us our origin it shapes our views of what we are. It influences not just… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
The symbolism of meat-eating is never neutral. To himself, the meat-eater seems to be eating life. To the vegetarian, he seems to be eating… — Mary Midgley Copy Share Image
