Bernard Williams

English moral philosopher — moral luck, integrity and the limits of ethical theory

University of Oxford; University of Cambridge; University of California, Berkeley · United Kingdom · d. 21 September 1929 (Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex) — 10 June 2003 (Rome)

Held the Knightbridge chair at Cambridge from 1967, was Provost of King's College from 1979 to 1987, and succeeded R. M. Hare as White's Professor at Oxford in 1990 after a spell at Berkeley. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985) argued that no theory could do the work morality asked of it. He chaired the 1979 committee on obscenity and censorship, and died in Rome on 10 June 2003.

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Record

Life: 21 September 1929 (Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex) — 10 June 2003 (Rome)
Country: United Kingdom
Period: 20th century
Affiliation: University of Oxford; University of Cambridge; University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Ethics, Metaethics, Personal identity, Political philosophy, History of philosophy
Major works: Morality: An Introduction to Ethics (1972)
Problems of the Self (1973)
Utilitarianism: For and Against, with J. J. C. Smart (1973)
Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry (1978)
Moral Luck (1981)
Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985)
Shame and Necessity (1993)
Truth and Truthfulness (2002)
In the Beginning Was the Deed (2005, posthumous)
Key concepts: Moral luck, Integrity and the critique of utilitarianism, Internal and external reasons, Thick ethical concepts, The morality system, Truthfulness, Political realism
Influenced by: Friedrich Nietzsche, Aristotle, David Hume, Gilbert Ryle, Isaiah Berlin, Thucydides
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Bernard Williams
Wikipedia, Bernard Williams

Stories

This Day in Philosophy

Schopenhauer, Williams and Bunge on what philosophy can do for a life

Arthur Schopenhauer died on his sofa in Frankfurt on 21 September 1860. Bernard Williams was born on the date in 1929, Mario Bunge in 1919, Peter van Inwagen in 1942; Savonarola in 1452, and Virgil died on it in 19 BC. Each had a view on how much philosophy can settle, and they do not agree.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bernard Williams

Newsroom21 September 2026