“Rationality, when viewed as the formation of syllogisms based on discovery of “the facts” and the application of such principles as “Pain should be minimized” or “Intelligent life is always more valuable than beautiful unintelligent beings,” is a myth. Only the Platonic urge to say that every moral sentiment, and indeed every emotion of any sort, should be based on the recognition of an objective quality in the recipient makes us think that our treatment of koalas or whites or Martians is a “matter of moral principle.” For the “facts” which must be discovered to apply the principle are, in the case of the koala’s or the white’s “feelings,” not discoverable independently of sentiment.”

– Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature