Great Throughts Treasury

"Human life has positive meaning only if (1) it contains some purposes the person who live it takes to be nontrivial and achievable; (2) these purposes have positive value; and (3) it also contains actions that are directed toward achieving purposes and are performed with zest."

"My colleague, Dan Brock, suggests that academic philosophers should only get involved in the policy-making arena on a temporary, short-term basis. Maybe this is a way in which we could manage to have our cake and eat it too. For a short period one might engage in giving bad effective arguments without being thoroughly corrupted. Then one could retreat back to the academy to wash one's moderately soiled hands. After having one's intellectual integrity restored and reinforced, one might then be ready to repeat the cycle."