When Bernard Williams died in 2003, the Times newspaper hailed him ‘as the greatest moral philosopher of his generation’. This outstanding collection of specially commissioned new essays on Williams's work is essential reading for anyone interested in Williams, ethics and moral philosophy and philosophy in general.
Reading Bernard Williams examines the astonishing scope of his philosophy from metaphysics and philosophy of mind to ethics, political philosophy and the history of philosophy. An international line up of outstanding contributors discuss, amongst others, the following central aspects of Williams's work:
- Williams's challenge to contemporary moral philosophy and his criticisms of 'absolute' theories of morality
- reason and rationality
- the good life
- the emotions
- Williams and the phenomenological tradition
- philosophical and political agency
- moral and political luck
- ethical relativism
Contributors : Simon Blackburn; John Cottingham; Frances Ferguson; Joshua Gert; Peter Goldie; Charles Guignon; Sharon Krause; Christopher Kutz; Daniel Markovits; Elijah Millgram; Martha Naussbaum; Carol Rovane
1. Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy, Cambridge University
The Absolute Conception: Putnam vs Williams
2. John Cottingham, Professor of Philosophy, Reading University
Title: The Good Life and the “Radical Contingency of the Ethical”
4. Frances Ferguson, Mary Elizabeth Garrett Professor in Arts and Sciences and Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Bernard Williams and the Importance of Being Literarily Earnest
5. Joshua Gert, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University
Title: Williams on reasons and rationality
6. Peter Goldie, The Samuel Hall Chair in Philosophy, and Head of Philosophy, University of Manchester
Thick concepts and emotion
7. Charles Guignon, Professor of Philosophy, University of South Florida
Williams and the Phenomenological Tradition
8. Sharon Krause, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Title: Political Agency and the Actual
9. Christopher Kutz, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, University of California at Berkeley
Title: Against Political luck
10. Daniel Markovits, Associate Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Title: The Architecture of Integrity
11. Elijah Millgram, E.E. Ericksen Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah
Title: D'où Venons Nous…Que Sommes Nous… Où Allons Nous?
12. Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago
Title: Bernard Williams: Tragedies, Hope, Justice
13. Carol Rovane, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies, Columbia University
Ethical relativism
Biography
Daniel Callcut
'This fine volume of essays should be read by anyone with an interest in how ethics relates to metaphysics, rationality, narrative, and politics. It should also, of course, be read by anyone with an interest in Bernard Williams.' – A. W. Moore, ETHICS
'Reading Bernard Williams collects the work of many fine philosophers who have read Bernard Williams with great profit and provides an ideal point of entry for those who have not yet had that pleasure. Since Williams' work is often more difficult than it appears, it is extremely helpful to have a book that offers so many clear-eyed critical explications of his ideas.' – Kwame Anthony Appiah, Princeton University, USA