“The goal of maximizing the welfare of all may be better achieved by an ethic that accepts our inclinations and harnesses them so that, taken as a whole, the system works to everyone's advantage.”

— Peter Singer

Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981), Chapter 6, A New Understanding Of Ethics, p. 157

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Peter Singer54

Australian philosopher 1946

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Thus we seem to be on the verge of an expansion of welfare economics into something like a social science of ethics and politics: what was intended to be a mere porch to ethics is either the whole house or nothing at all. In so laying down its life welfare economics may be able to contribute some of its insights and analytical methods to a much broader evaluative analysis of the whole social process.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1940s, Economic Analysis, 1941, p. 34. (rev. ed. 1948) cited in: J.P. Roos (1973) Welfare Theory and Social Policy: A Study in Policy Science - Nummer 4. p. 102

“The bounded rationality of each actor in a system may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of the system as a whole.”

Donella Meadows (1941–2001) American environmental scientist, teacher, and writer

Pages 188-191.
Thinking in systems: A Primer (2008)

“I refuse to start from the assumption that the role of monetary policy is to control and stabilize inflation. The only acceptable way to start is, I believe, to think of the goal of monetary policy, together with fiscal policy,as the maximization of welfare.”

Olivier Blanchard (1948) French economist

" Monetary Policy; Science or Art? https://economics.mit.edu/files/742" (2006)

“Dostoevsky believed that the gods of rationalism and materialist utilitarianism had joined in conspiracy against all other ethical systems. … The accumulation of capital, or the acquisition of money, are endeavors par excellence which establish a quantifiable goal: hence they are directly amenable to maximization formulae.”

John Carroll (1944) Australian professor and author

Source: Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974), p. 149

“Cannibalism is actually a sort of dietetic socialism. Here is the ultimate sacrifice. A human life is taken for the purpose of maximizing the ‘public welfare.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Rampart Institute p. 375.
The Fundamental of Liberty (1988)

“The problem of systems improvement is the problem of the 'ethics of the whole system.”

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

Source: 1960s - 1970s, The Systems Approach (1968), p. 4

“We will win and achieve all our goals.”

Dmitry Peskov (1967) Russian politician

"Kremlin Tells Russians: Don’t Worry, This War Will ‘Make Your Lives Better’" https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-tells-russians-not-to-worry-this-will-make-your-lives-better, The Daily Beast, 17 May 2022 <br class="br">CNN Interview (March 2022)

“Our work is about supporting survivors by providing resources for healing and action. If in the course of that process a perpetrator is held accountable for their actions - so be it. But our goal is not to ‘take down’ individuals it’s to dismantle systems that give them cover.”

Tarana Burke (1973) American civil rights activist

Source: [1017753906728890369, TaranaBurke, Our work is about supporting survivors by providing resources for healing and action., en, Burke, Tarana, Jul 13, 2018, https://twitter.com/TaranaBurke/status/1017753906728890369, 2022-01-25]

“A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole. It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

Ackoff (1973) "Science in the Systems Age: beyond IE, OR and MS." in: Operations Research Vol 21, pp. 664.
1970s

“The goal of maximizing the welfare of all may be better achieved by an ethic that accepts our inclinations and harnesses them so that, taken as a whole, the system works to everyone's advantage.”

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Peter Singer54

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