I think the contribution people make is not proportionate to their fame or success. In fact, I think the relation is often inverse.

We commit not only theoretical error but also moral wrong in objectifying ourselves or other rational beings, ignoring their capacities for free action and communicative interaction with us.

In any matter of moral importance, our first task, before we plunge ahead and decide what to do, is to figure out what we ought to do.

I don't think Kant's theory looks bad to people except insofar as they have misunderstood it (for instance, as heartless and ironheaded, or as committed to an absurd metaphysical conception of freedom that violates Kant's own philosophy).

I do not know how much my own work has achieved, and I must not pretend it has done more than it has.

Consequentialist theories begin with a very simple and undoubtedly valid point: Every action aims at a future end, and is seen as a means to it.

Teaching and writing about philosophy is about the only thing I've ever been really good at.