ABSTRACT

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

 

chapter |6 pages

INTRODUCTION

part |2 pages

Part I ETHICS AND METAPHYSICS

part |2 pages

Part II HUMAN REASONS

chapter 4|21 pages

WILLIAMS ON REASONS AND RATIONALITY

chapter 5|16 pages

THICK CONCEPTS AND EMOTION

chapter 6|29 pages

THE ARCHITECTURE OF INTEGRITY

part |2 pages

Part III STORIES AND SELF-CONCEPTIONS

part |2 pages

Part IV POLITICAL REALISM