Bernard Williams

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Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (born September 21, 1929 in Westcliff-on-Sea , Essex , † June 10, 2003 in Rome ) was an English philosopher . Williams was best known as a critic of utilitarianism , Kantianism and general systematic approaches in moral philosophy . His metaethical thematization of dense ethical terms was also much discussed . He is considered one of the most influential ethicists of the second half of the 20th century.

Life

Bernard Williams received the MA degree at Balliol College of Oxford University . After serving in the Royal Air Force , he held a number of academic positions in England. In 1967 he became Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge University and from 1979 director (Provost) of King's College . In 1987 he became Sather Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley . He returned to England in 1990 to become White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford , a position he held until 1996. He then returned to Berkeley as Professor of Philosophy , where he remained until his death. He was a member of the British Academy since 1971 and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1983 . In 1999 he was ennobled as a Knight Bachelor .

Works

  • Morality: An Introduction to Ethics , Cambridge University Press, 1972
    • German: The concept of morality. An introduction to ethics , Stuttgart 1985
  • Problems of the Self , Cambridge University Press, 1973.
    • German: problems of the self. Philosophical essays 1956–1972 , Stuttgart 1978
  • Utilitarianism. For and Against (together with JJC Smart ), Cambridge 1973
  • Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry , Harvester Press, 1978
    • German: Descartes. The intention of a purely philosophical investigation , Athenaeum, Königstein / Ts. 1981, ISBN 3-7610-1012-5
  • Moral Luck , Cambridge University Press, 1981.
    • German: moral coincidence. Philosophical essays 1973-1980 , Frankfurt / Main 1984
  • Utilitarianism and Beyond (Ed. With Amartya Sen ), Cambridge University Press, 1982
  • Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy , Harvard University Press, 1985
    • German: Ethics and the limits of philosophy , translated by Michael Haupt, Rotbuch, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-434-53036-3
  • Shame and Necessity , University of California Press, 1993
    • German: shame, guilt and necessity. A revival of ancient concepts of morality , Berlin 2000
  • Making Sense of Humanity and Other Philosophical Papers 1982-1993 , Cambridge 1995
  • Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy , Princeton University Press, 2002
    • German: Truth and Truthfulness , translated by Joachim Schulte, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-58369-7

literature

  • Simon Blackburn: Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, 1929-2003 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 150 , 2007, p. 335-348 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links