“Trying to answer this by collecting information about our own neurones would be no more use than doing it, like the Roman augur, by inspecting the entrails of a goat.”

—  Mary Midgley

Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979). 173.
Context: We must face unconsidered possibilities and ask ourselves alarming questions–for instance, must we perhaps let the self-destroyer go if he really wants to? Trying to answer this by collecting information about our own neurones would be no more use than doing it, like the Roman augur, by inspecting the entrails of a goat.

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Mary Midgley 42
British philosopher and ethicist 1919–2018

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