Biography

Sir Bernard Williams, in full Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, (born Sept. 21, 1929, Westcliff, Essex, Eng.—died June 10, 2003, Rome, Italy), English philosopher, noted especially for his writings on ethics and the history of Western philosophy, both ancient and modern.

Williams was educated at Chigwell School, Essex, and Balliol College, Oxford. During the 1950s he served in the Royal Air Force (1951–53) and was a fellow of All Souls College and New College, Oxford. He was appointed Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 1967 and Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, in 1979. He was Monroe Deutsch Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1988 to 2003 and White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford from 1990 to 1996.

In 1955 Williams married Shirley Catlin, who, as Shirley Williams, became a prominent political figure in Britain; in 1993 she was created Baroness Williams of Crosby. In 1974 the marriage was dissolved, and Williams married Patricia Skinner. Williams headed or served on a number of public commissions, notably the Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship (1977–79), and was a director of the English National Opera. He was knighted in 1999....  [ Continues in Bernard Williams, by Thomas Nagel [Encyclopedia Britannica ]

Obituaries:

• Professor Sir Bernard Williams:  "Arguably the greatest British philosopher of his era, he brought wit and compassion to the moral questions of society..." -- GUARDIAN/ June 2003 - Jane O'Grady

• Sir Bernard Williams, 73, Oxford Philosopher, Dies [New York Times/ June 2003 -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt] 

• Professor Sir Bernard Williams: The Telegraph (June 2003).

•  Philosopher Bernard Williams Dies, Washington Post (June 2000)

• Bernard Williams (1929-2003) [Philosophy Now - June 2003 -- A.W. Moore] 

Books:

• Bernard Williams' Books: as available on Amazon.com

• Oxford Bibliographies Online

Videos/Interviews:

• Bernard Williams - "The Spell of Linguistic Philosophy"; Byran Magee interviews Bernard Williams, BBC, 1977 

• Bernard Williams and AJ Ayer on Wittgenstein, Truth, and Religion [1978]

• Bernard Williams on Descartes [1987] 

• Bernard Williams - The Human Prejudice (2002)   (1 of 8) [Walter E. Edge Lecture, Princeton University]

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• MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES Interview with Bernard Williams [ First published in Cogito, Volume 8, Issue 1, 1994, pp. 3-19 ]

• Seminar with Bernard Williams 25 November 1998 — Institute of Philosophy — KU Leuven

• Q & A / Bernard Williams / Carrying the torch for truth / Philosopher calculates the moral cost of rejecting the concept: Interview with Kenneth Baker, SFGate (September 2002).

• A Mistrustful Animal An Interview with Bernard Williams, December 2002. [Harvard Review 12.1: 2004]. Reprinted in    Conversations on Ethics.  Ed. by Alex Voorhoeve.

Critical studies and collections:

• Mark P. Jenkins, Bernard Williams (Philosophy Now Series), (McGill/Queen's: 2006).

• Alan Thomas, The Ethical Philosophy of Bernard Williams (Cambridge Elements Series). (Cambridge University Press: 2024).

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• World, Mind, and Ethics: Essays on the Ethical Philosophy of Bernard Williams. Edited by J.E.J. Altham & Ross Harrison. (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

• Bernard Williams (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus), ed. Alan Thomas (Cambridge University Press: 2007).

• Reading Bernard Williams, ed. Daniel Callcut (Routledge: 2009).

                      -- Review of Callcut's Reading Bernard Williams by Catherine Wilson in NDRB 2009.10.19

•  Luck, Value, and Commitment: Themes From the Ethics of Bernard Williams, eds. Ulrike Heuer & Gerald Lang (Oxford University Press: 2012).

• Ethics Beyond the Limits: New Essays on Bernard Williams’ Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, eds. Sophie Grace Chappell & Marcel van Ackeren (Routledge: 2018)

• Bernard Williams on Philosophy and History, eds. M. Ackeren & M. Queloz (Oxford University press, 2025).

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Miscellaneous Reviews by Williams:

• Various reviews by Bernard Williams in London Review of Books

• Various reviews by Bernard Williams in New York Review of Books

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• "Cosmic Philosopher", review of Robert Nozick's Philosophical Explanations [NYRB, February 1982]

• Consequences Bernard Williams reviews A Matter of Principle by Ronald Dworkin.

• "Getting It Right", review of Richard Rorty's Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (LRB, November 1989). PDF

Important Reviews of Williams' Work:

Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy:

• "Why We Can't Be Good", by Ronald de Sousa [NYT, July 1985]

• Character, Paul Seabright [LRB, September 1985]

• Arthur Danto [LA Times: December, 1985]

• Who Can Tell Right from Wrong?, H.L.A. Hart [NYRB, July, 1986]

• Morality through Thick and Thin: Samuel Scheffler

• Making Ends Meet, Simon Blackburn, with replies from Bernard Williams [Phil. Books, October,  1986]

Shame and Necessity

• Are we any better?: Gisela Striker [LRB, May 1993]

• Greece is the word: Gabriel Josipovici [The Independent, June 1993]

• The Greek Way: Bernard Knox [NRB, November 1993]

Truth and Truthfulness

• To the Sunlit Uplands: Richard Rorty [LRB, October 2002]

• State of Nature: Edward Skidelsky [New Statesman, November 2002] 

• Isn't It the Truth?: Colin McGinn [NYRB, April 2003] 

• Review of Truth and Truthfulness: Clancy W. Martin [NDRB, September 2003]

Collected Papers:

• The View from Here and Now: by Thomas Nagel [LRB May 2006] Review of The Sense of the Past: Essays in the History of Philosophy; In the Beginning Was the Deed; Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline .

Essays and Reviews 1959-2002

• Essays and Reviews 1959-2002 by Bernard Williams [review] - Mary Beard [Guardian, March 2014]

• Review of Bernard Williams, Essays and Reviews 1959-2002 - Roger Scruton [The Telegraph - February 16, 2014]

• Review of Bernard Williams Essays and Reviews: 1959-2002 - Alasdair Palmer [Standpoint, March 2014]

• "Life as a Humanistic Discipline" - Paul Sagar [The Oxonian Review, March 2014] 

• Cabinets and Kings, Joel Issac [LRB, May 2014] 

• What Philosophers Dream Of - by Geoffrey Hawthorn. LRB July 2015. [Review of Essays and Reviews 1959-2002]

Selected commentary available online:

• Martha C. Nussbaum, Tragedy and Justice: Bernard Williams remembered [Boston Review,   October/November 2003]

• John Cottingham’s Forward to the 2005 reissue of Williams' Descartes: reprinted in Manwithoutqualities

• Simon Blackburn, No Easy Answers [The New Republic, 2007]  

• Nakul Krishna, Add Your Own Egg  [The Point]

•   Kate Manne,  On Williams' "Moral Luck", March 28, 2016 [Cornell University]

• Maudemarie Clark, "On the Rejection of Morality, Bernard Williams’s Debt to Nietzsche", chapter from Nietzsche on Ethics and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2015)

• Daniel Callcut,  What are we? {AEON]

• James Griffin, BERNARD WILLIAMS’S REJECTION OF MORALITY,  

•  Adrian Moore, Interviewed about Bernard Williams [Philosophy Bites, November 2013]

• Paul Russell, "Bernard Williams: Ethics from a Human Point of View" [TLS "Footnotes to Plato": December 18, 2018]

• Daniel Callcut,  "Wrestling with Relativism, Bernard Williams, moral relativism and the culture wars" [AEON: October 2023]

Opera & Music:

Bernard Williams, On Opera (Yale University Press: 2006)

Bernard Williams, Wagner & Politics [NYRB, November 2000]

Moral (and Musical) Hazard By MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, Review of ON OPERA and ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 1959-2002, by Bernard Williams

Reports & Political Contributions:

Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship - Wikipedia article

Obscenity and Film Censorship: An Abridgement of the Williams Report, edited by Bernard Williams. (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

Major Conferences on Williams:

• Themes from the Ethics of Bernard Williams, 30th June - 2nd July 2009; Leeds University.

• The Moral and Political Legacy of Bernard Williams, Oxford University, April 21st-22nd, 2014.

• 30 Years of Bernard Williams’ Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Oxford University 3rd-5th July, 2015.

• Conference on Bernard Williams and the Ancients,   -- Newnham College, Cambridge, 19th-20th September, 2016

• "Agency, Fate and Luck: Themes from Bernard Williams";  Lund University, Sweden. June 13-15th, 2019

• Symposium on Bernard Williams' 'Truth and Truthfulness': University of Warwick. May 2025.

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