"Inequalities are permissible when they maximize, or at least all contribute to, the long term expectations of the least fortunate group in society."

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“Justice does not require that men must stand idly by while others destroy the basis of their existence.”

“The hazards of the generalized prisoner's dilemma are removed by the match between the right and the good.”

“We must not be enticed by mathematically attractive assumptions into pretending that the contingencies of men's social positions and the asymmetries of their situations somehow even out in the end. Rather we must choose our conception of justice fully recognizing that this is not and cannot be the case.”

“Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry on Original Position by Fred D'Agostino”

“The extreme nature of dominant-end views is often concealed by the vagueness and ambiguity of the end proposed.”

“That persons have opposing interests and seek to advance their own conception of the good is not at all the same thing as their being moved by envy and jealousy.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting every posi…"

— Samuel Smiles

Literature1812–1904

#Human Nature

"There are two main reasons that Kant refuses to allow that sympathy or any other empirical sentiment or desire could constitute the foundation of morality. One is that no sentiment of this kind can yi…"

— Allen W. Wood

Philosophy1942

#Human Nature

"Good people and religious are the first to say, "He hath a devil" of any one whose way is widely different from and maybe greatly higher than their own."

— Coventry Patmore

Literature1823–1896

#Human Nature

"The more i watched how boys and girls behaved, the more i read and the more i thought about it, the more convinced i became that this behavior could be traced directly back to the plantation when slav…"

— Assata Shakur

Social Activism1947–2025

#Human Nature