“Here is a conceptual truth about reasons: If it is impossible for us to do otherwise, that can never be because there is a reason to act as we do.”

Kantian Ethics (2008)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Here is a conceptual truth about reasons: If it is impossible for us to do otherwise, that can never be because there i…" by Allen W. Wood?
Allen W. Wood photo
Allen W. Wood 14
academic 1942

Related quotes

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“We know now, if we know anything, that all the reasons for doing right, and all the reasons against doing wrong, are here in this world.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Is Divorce Wrong? (1889)
Context: Marriages are made by men and women; not by society; not by the state; not by the church; not by supernatural beings. By this time we should know that nothing is moral that does not tend to the well-being of sentient beings; that nothing is virtuous the result of which is not good. We know now, if we know anything, that all the reasons for doing right, and all the reasons against doing wrong, are here in this world.

Václav Havel photo

“If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
Context: Why do I say this? It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last forty years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed to us. On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.

Charles Darwin photo

“We need to understand what we can do and how. Otherwise we will never do it.”

Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis (1914–1975) Greek architect

Preface, p. x
Building Entopia - 1975

Gottfried Leibniz photo

“There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible.”

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

Il y a aussi deux sortes de vérités, celles de Raisonnement et celle de Fait. Les vérités de Raisonnement sont nécessaires et leur opposé est impossible, et celles de Fait sont contingentes et leur opposé est possible.
La monadologie (33).
The Monadology (1714)

Elliott Smith photo

“Gimme one good reason not to do it(because we love you), so do it.”

Elliott Smith (1969–2003) American singer-songwriter

King's Crossing.
Lyrics, From a Basement on the Hill (posthumous, 2004)

Matthew Henry photo

Related topics