Allen W. Wood

Descartes recommended that we distrust the senses and rely on the ... use of our intellect.

— Allen W. Wood

Kant was a rational theologian. He did not pretend to be a biblical or revealed theologian.

— Allen W. Wood

Teaching and writing about philosophy is about the only thing I've ever been really good at.

— Allen W. Wood

Hegel's theory of recognition is basically derived from Fichte, who is its real author.

— Allen W. Wood

In general, those who defend capitalism are basically out of touch with reality.

— Allen W. Wood

Empiricist philosophy always tends to be anti-philosophy (and is often proud of it).

— Allen W. Wood

The moral law is simply the way we think our own freedom as self-determination.

— Allen W. Wood

We can't coherently deny, or even decline to affirm, that we are free.

— Allen W. Wood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The species of anti-Enlightenment religion we find among evangelical protestants is far more impoverished, anti-intellectual and downright wretched.

— Allen W. Wood

I am a one-trick pony. But I have worked hard at something I would have liked to do even if I weren't…

— Allen W. Wood

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

Karl Marx left it to others to find the way beyond capitalism to a higher form of society. He saw his role…

— Allen W. Wood

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

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

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

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

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

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

It has taken me a long time to realize where I most disagree with Marx. His assessment of capitalism is far too…

— Allen W. Wood

Kant does not think that along with choice of an action we also choose in each case the motive from which we…

— Allen W. Wood

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

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

“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

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

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

“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

“Western capitalist society, and especially my own American society, is one characterized by great inequalities. In any such society, by the nature…

— Allen W. Wood

“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

“Especially to be avoided is approaching Kant's life in a spirit of hero worship or hagiography -- as though our interest in…

— Allen W. Wood

What I most fear now is that within a century or so there may not be any human future at all.

— Allen W. Wood

There is a lot in Adam Smith that reflects the insights of Rousseau and anticipates those of Marx.

— Allen W. Wood

Capitalism has not proven to be a transitional form, a gateway to a higher human future.

— Allen W. Wood

Freedom is an unprovable but unavoidable presupposition, not an article of faith.

— Allen W. Wood