2
" One peculiarity of our present [ethical] climate is that we care much more about our rights than about our 'good'. For previous thinkers about ethics, such as those who wrote the Upanishads, or Confucius, or Plato, or the founders of the Christian tradition, the central concern was the state of one's soul, meaning some personal state of justice or harmony. Such a state might include resignation or renunciation, or detachment, or obedience, or knowledge, especially self-knowledge. For Plato there could be no just political order except one populated by just citizens.... Today we tend not to believe that; we tend to think that modern constitutional democracies are fine regardless of the private vices of those within them. We are much more nervous talking about our good: it seems moralistic, or undemocratic, or elitist. Similarly, we are nervous talking about duty. The Victorian ideal of a life devoted to duty, or a calling, is substantially lost to us. So a greater proportion of our moral energy goes to protecting claims against each other, and that includes protecting the state of our soul as purely private, purely our own business. "
― Simon Blackburn , Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics
5
" We smile at lovers holding hands in the park. But we wrinkle our noses if we find them acting out their lust under
the bushes. Love receives the world’s applause. Lust is furtive,
ashamed, and embarrassed. Love pursues the good of the other, with
self-control, concern, reason, and patience. Lust pursues its own
gratification, headlong, impatient of any control, immune to reason.
Love thrives on candlelight and conversation. Lust is equally happy
in a doorway or a taxi, and its conversation is made of animal grunts
and cries. Love is individual: there is only the unique Other, the one
doted upon, the single star around whom the lover revolves. Lust
takes what comes. Lovers gaze into each others’ eyes. Lust looks
sideways, inventing deceits and stratagems and seductions, sizing up
opportunities (fig. 9). Love grows with knowledge and time, court-
ship, truth, and trust. Lust is a trail of clothing in the hallway...Living with lust is like living shackled to a lunatic. "
― Simon Blackburn , Lust
9
" Others may want to stand upon the ‘politics of identity’, or in other words the kind of identification with a particular tradition, or group, or national or ethnic identity that invites them to turn their back on outsiders who question the ways of the group. They will shrug off criticism: their values are ‘incommensurable’ with the values of outsiders. They are to be understood only by brothers and sisters within the circle. People like to retreat to within a thick, comfortable, traditional set of folkways, and not to worry too much about their structure, or their origins, or even the criticisms that they may deserve. Reflection opens the avenue to criticism, and the folkways may not like criticism. In this way, ideologies become closed circles, primed to feel outraged by the questioning mind. "
― Simon Blackburn , Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy