Bernard Williams

Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (September 21, 1929 – June 10, 2003) was an English moral philosopher, noted by The Times as the "most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-712787,00.html

Critique of Kantianism

One of the main rivals of utilitarianism is the moral philosophy of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Williams' work throughout the 1970s and 1980s — Morality: An Introduction to Ethics in 1972; Problems of the Self in 1973; Utilitarianism: For and Against with J.J.C. Smart, also in 1973; Moral Luck in 1981; and Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy in 1985 — outlined the basis of his attacks on the twin pillars of utilitarianism and Kantianism. Martha Nussbaum wrote:

Related Topics:
18th-century - Immanuel Kant - 1970 - 1980 - 1972 - 1973 - 1981 - 1985 - Martha Nussbaum

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As a group these works denounced the trivial and evasive way in which moral philosophy was being practised in England under the aegis of those two dominant theories." http://www.bostonreview.net/BR28.5/nussbaum.html

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Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals expounded a moral system based on what he called the Categorical Imperative, the best known version of which is: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become, by an act of will, a universal law of nature".

Related Topics:
Critique of Practical Reason - Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals - Categorical Imperative - Will - Law - Nature

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This is a binding law, Kant argued, on any rational being with free will. You must imagine, when you act, that the rule underpinning your action will apply to everyone in similar circumstances, including yourself in future. If you cannot accept the consequences of this thought experiment, or if it leads to a contradiction, you must not carry out the act. For example, if you want to kill your wife's lover, you must imagine a law that says all wronged husbands have the right to kill their wives' lovers; and that will include you, should you become the lover of a married woman. In other words, you must universalize your experience.

Related Topics:
Rational - Free will - Thought experiment - Universalize

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Williams argued against the Categorical Imperative in his paper "Persons, character and morality" (Moral Luck, 1981). Morality should not require us to act selflessly, as though we are not who we are, as though we are not in the circumstances we presently find ourselves. We should not have to take an impartial view, or a Christian view, of the world, he argued. Our values, commitments, and desires do make a difference to how we see the world and to how we act; and so they should, he said, otherwise we lose our individuality, and thereby our humanity.

Related Topics:
Christian - Values

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