Stuart Hampshire 1914 – 2004
Stuart Newton Hampshire was a British philosopher and one of the leading figures of postwar Oxford philosophy. After service in British intelligence during the Second World War, including the interrogation of senior Nazi officials, he held chairs at London, Princeton, and Stanford and served as warden of Wadham College, Oxford. His Thought and Action and his study of Spinoza developed a philosophy of practical reason and freedom drawing on Spinoza, while Innocence and Experience and Justice Is Conflict argued that justice rests on the procedural fairness of conflict resolution rather than on any single comprehensive moral vision.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Stuart Hampshire:
“Justice is conflict, mediated by procedure.”
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Attributed to Stuart Hampshire:
“We are responsible for the actions we could have foreseen and prevented.”
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Attributed to Stuart Hampshire:
“Practical reason is the deliberation that ends in choice.”
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Attributed to Stuart Hampshire:
“Innocence cannot be preserved against experience; it can only be informed by it.”
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Attributed to Stuart Hampshire:
“Spinoza's ethics is a discipline of freedom.”