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

Williams' philosophical legacy

In a secular humanist tradition, with no appeal to God or any external moral authority, Williams' theory strikes at the very foundation of conventional morality: that one would sometimes do good even if one did not want to because, in order to be rational, one had to. However, one question raised by the British moral philosopher, Philippa Foot, counters this approach by asking: is desiring to be good really a bad thing? Is it not more reasonable to argue that the person who wants to be good is a better person than the one who does not? To recognize that we act in accordance with our desires need not, Foot argued, rob us of morality. Although when left with self-interest as the basis for morality in a secular philosophy, good people will desire to do good for their own reasons, that selfish desire need not detract from the goodness of the subsequent act.

Related Topics:
Secular humanist - God - Rational - Philippa Foot

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By illuminating what he saw as the positive role of self-interest in moral action, a role largely neglected in Western philosophy, Bernard Williams went on to become one of the leading English-language philosophers of his time, bringing moral philosophy firmly back into the arena of difficult lives being lived under difficult circumstances.

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