“You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the prohibition against murder life is pleasanter for all of us - but this argument is exceedingly comic. Because utility presupposes the life of those who are to be convenienced, and everybody perceives quite clearly that the wrong done in murder is done first and foremost to the victim, whose life is not inconvenienced, it just isn't there any more. He isn't there to complain; so the utilitarian argument has to be on behalf of the rest of us. Therefore, though true, it is highly comic and is not the foundation: the objection to murder is supra-utilitarian.”

—  G. E. M. Anscombe

Contraception and Chastity (1975)

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 "You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious.…" by G. E. M. Anscombe?
G. E. M. Anscombe photo
G. E. M. Anscombe 10
British analytic philosopher 1919–2001

Related quotes

Rene Balcer photo

“Man has only the rights he can defend. Our most basic right is life. It's enshrined not only in our Constitution, but in the charter of the United Nations. The prohibition against taking a life is found in our most ancient texts and in the statutes of every nation. Every murder, whether in Brooklyn, Santiago, Rwanda or Kosovo, demands punishment by whatever legal means possible. Otherwise, the right to life is just an empty promise. The law against murder applies to all. No matter the perpetrator, the victim, or the country where the murder is committed. It is the one moral law that recognizes no national, racial or religious boundaries. It can tolerate no exception. There is one law. One law. And when that law is broken it is the duty of every officer of any court to rise in defense of that law, and bring their full power and diligence to bear against the law breaker. Because Man has only those rights he can defend. Only those rights.”

Rene Balcer (1954) screenwriter, producer and director

Spoken by Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Vaya Con Dios.
Law & Order

J. Howard Moore photo

“To take the life of an ox for his muscles, or to kill a sheep for his skin is murder, and those who do these things or cause them to be done are murderers just as actually as highwaymen are who blow off the heads of hapless wayfarers for their guineas. If these things seem untrue it is not because they are untrue, but because those to whom they seem so are unable to judge conduct from the quadrupedal point of view.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

"The Ethics of Human Beings Toward Non-human Beings", pp. 281–282
The Universal Kinship (1906), The Ethical Kinship

Suzanne Collins photo

“Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?" says Peeta. "It costs everything you are.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Variant: It costs your life,” says Caesar.

“Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?” says Peeta. “It costs everything you are.
Source: Mockingjay

Sherilyn Fenn photo

“I see people giving me looks because I'm so opinionated. That hurts my feelings, but at the end of the day I have to live with me and respect myself. And I've done enough things in my life where I was confused and didn't respect myself that I will not do it any more.”

Sherilyn Fenn (1965) American actress

Sherilyn Fenn, quoted in "'Three of Hearts' may be Fenn's winning card", by Nancy Mills. Boston Herald (USA). April 25, 1993. p. 41

Edith Sitwell photo

“Mother or Murderer, you have
given or taken life —
Now all is one!”

Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) British poet

"Three Poems of the Atomic Bomb: Dirge for the New Sunrise"
The Canticle of the Rose (1949)

William J. Brennan photo

“Yet the ultimate problem is more fundamental. I have long believed that the death penalty is in all circumstances a barbaric and inhuman punishment that violates our Constitution. Even the most vile murderer does not release the state from its constitutional obligation to respect human dignity, for the state does not honor the victim by emulating the murderer who took his life. The fatal infirmity of capital punishment is that it treats members of the human race as non-humans, as objects to be toyed with and discarded.”

William J. Brennan (1906–1997) American judge

Writing in Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan's Enduring Influence (1997).

Henry Adams photo

“A parent gives life, but as parent, gives no more. A murderer takes life, but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

Henry Adams book The Education of Henry Adams

Source: The Education of Henry Adams

Orson Scott Card photo

“The funny thing was, you see, that Mike Fink didn't think of himself as a murderer. He thought of life as a contest, and dying was what happened to those who came out second best, but it wasn't the same as murder, it was a fair fight.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 14.

“Murder… murder… Can you prove it was murder? […] I didn't think you could prove it was murder. She was dying in any event.”

John Bodkin Adams (1899–1983) general practitionar, fraudster and suspected serial killer

To police on being charged.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk photo

“Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey

Variant translation: Unless a nation's citizens are in danger, war is a crime.
"Adana Çiftçileriyle Konuşma" (16 March 1923) http://www.atam.gov.tr/index.php?Page=SoylevDemecler&IcerikNo=155; English translation as delivered in an address by Talat S. Halman (10 November 1995) http://turkishembassy.com/II/O/AtaturksPage.htm, quoted in The Turkish Times (1 December 1995)

Related topics