Bernard Williams
1929–2003 · English philosopher
“People aren't parts in a happiness calculator”
Life and education
- Born
- 21 September 1929, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England
- Died
- 10 June 2003, Rome, Italy
- Education
- Balliol College, Oxford (Classics)
- Positions
- Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge (1967–1979); Provost of King's College, Cambridge (1979–1987); UC Berkeley; White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, Oxford (1990–1996)
English philosopher widely seen as the sharpest critic in late 20th-century ethics. He studied Classics at Oxford and taught at Cambridge, Oxford and Berkeley. He was knighted in 1999.
He argued that both utilitarianism and Kantianism ignore real people's lives, relationships and personal projects. In Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973), debating J. J. C. Smart, he raised the "integrity" objection, and with Nagel he developed the idea of "moral luck" — that luck beyond our control shapes moral judgment. He also wrote important papers on personal identity defending a bodily criterion.
Timeline
- 1956–57"Personal Identity and Individuation" — the duplication problem
- 1970"The Self and the Future"
- 1973Utilitarianism: For and Against (with Smart)
- 1981Moral Luck
- 1985Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy
- 1993Shame and Necessity
- 2002Truth and Truthfulness
Big ideas
If you think like them…
If you're like Bernard Williams, you look at real people's lives and relationships before grand moral theories. You push back hard on conclusions that sacrifice someone to a utility calculation, and you accept that morality is partly shaped by time and culture. You also have a strong sense that "I" am, in the end, the person living in this body.
Rough positions on the five questions the quiz uses. These simplify each philosopher's actual views and are open to interpretation.
Thought experiments featuring them
Key works
- Utilitarianism: For and Against (with J. J. C. Smart, 1973)
- Problems of the Self (1973)
- Moral Luck (1981)
- Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985)
- Truth and Truthfulness (2002)