Bernard Williams 1929 – 2003
Bernard Williams was a British analytic philosopher and one of the most original and influential moral philosophers of the twentieth century. Holding chairs at Cambridge, Berkeley, and Oxford, he criticized the dominant utilitarian and Kantian traditions for their abstraction from the real lives and characters of moral agents, developing instead a rich analysis of the role of integrity, moral luck, and internal reasons in ethical life. His Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Shame and Necessity, and Truth and Truthfulness combine analytic rigor with a deep sensitivity to the history of thought.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Bernard Williams:
“There can be no good reason for thinking that the moral point of view excludes any other point of view.”
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Attributed to Bernard Williams:
“Moral luck is the experience of being held responsible for what is outside our control.”
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Attributed to Bernard Williams:
“If a man has integrity, his actions express his deepest convictions.”
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Attributed to Bernard Williams:
“There is no Archimedean point in ethics.”
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Attributed to Bernard Williams:
“Truthfulness implies a respect for truth.”