"It is true that the greater part of our daily lives, and the pursuit of most occupations, give little satisfaction to deep-seated 'altruistic' desires to do visible good. Rather, accepted practices often require us to leave undone what our instincts impel us to do. It is not so much, as is often suggested, emotion and reason that conflict, but innate instincts and learnt rules. Yet, as we shall see, following these learnt rules generally does have the effect of providing a greater benefit to the community at large than most direct 'altruistic' action that a particular individual might take."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fatal_Conceit
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Fatal Conceit
51 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Fatal Conceit →
Related Quotes
"The main point of my argument is, then, that the conflict between, on one hand, advocates of the spontaneous extended…"
"I wish neither to deny reason the power to improve norms and institutions nor even to insist that it is incapable of …"
"Our moral traditions, like many other aspects of our culture, developed concurrently with our reason, not as its prod…"
"It is no accident that many abstract rules, such as those treating individual responsibility and several property, ar…"
"Information-gathering institutions such as the market enable us to use such dispersed and unsurveyable knowledge to f…"
"This evolution [of extended order] came about, then, through the spreading of new practices by a process of transmiss…"
"Part of our present difficulty is that we must constantly adjust our lives, our thoughts and our emotions, in order t…"
"The evolution of rules was far from unhindered, since the powers enforcing the rules generally resisted rather than a…"
"Just as instinct is older than custom and tradition, so then are the latter older than reason: custom and tradition s…"
"To understand our civilisation, one must appreciate that the extended order resulted not from human design or intenti…"