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On What Matters: Volume Two QUOTES

On What Matters: Volume Two QUOTES

1 " What now matters most is that we avoid ending human history. If there are no rational beings elsewhere, it may depend on us and our successors whether it will all be worth it, because the existence of the Universe will have been on the whole good. "

― Derek Parfit , On What Matters: Volume Two

2 " If there were no such normative truths, nothing would matter, and we would have no reasons to try to decide how to live. Such decisions would be arbitrary. We would not be the animals that can understand and respond to reasons. In a world without reasons, we would act only on our instincts and desires, living as other animals live. The Universe would not contain rational beings. "

― Derek Parfit , On What Matters: Volume Two