Oxford Philosophy Next Summer, the Philosophy Faculty Will Move from 10 Merton Street, Its Welcome Home for the Last 30 Years

Oxford Summer 2011 Philosophy news

Oxford Philosophy Next summer, the Philosophy Faculty will move from 10 Merton Street, its welcome home for the last 30 years. Faculty of Philosophy University of Oxford In 2012 the Faculty will relocate to the refurbished Radcliffe Infirmary building 10 Merton Street on the Woodstock Road. As well as the Philosophy Faculty, the Grade II* t is a pleasure to introduce the The Faculty also provides an exceptional Oxford listed building will house a combined Philosophy and Theology Library and third edition of Oxford Philosophy. offering for its undergraduates and OX1 4JJ the administrative offices of the Humanities Division. The move – which will, amongst other things, enhance the quality and quantity of space available for I have just joined the University as graduates, and for the wider public. UK graduate students – means that Philosophy will become the first academic IHead of the Humanities Division, and I Members of the Faculty regularly unit to be located within the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the site on which look forward to working with the Faculty appear in the media and they have email:[email protected] the integrated Humanities Centre (including new space for the Faculty) will be of Philosophy to support them as they been particularly adept at utilising new tel:+44 (0)1865 276928 built in due course. fax:+44 (0)1865 276932 continue to develop their outstanding technologies, podcasts and blogs Photo: Keiko Ikeuchi global reputation. to stimulate public debate on vital philosophical issues. Philosophy is, of course, a diverse and For news, events and further information, please visit: rich discipline comprising many different As everyone knows, higher education New Philosophy Degree subject areas. Oxford can boast of a in the UK is at present undergoing www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk In conjunction with the Department of Computer Science the Faculty is launching a range of philosophical expertise across unprecedented transformation. While new joint degree in 2012. the whole spectrum that is arguably these changes must prompt us to reflect unmatched anywhere in the world. deeply on our current practices and our Computer Science and Philosophy can be studied as a three or four year course, future needs, they also oblige all of us in leading to a BA degree or a Masters degree. The programme is modelled on the Research continues to go from strength the Humanities to diversify our sources Computer Science half of the Mathematics and Computer Science degree and the Philosophy half of the Mathematics and Philosophy degree. The first year covers to strength. In recent months members of income and to respond to the growing core material in both subjects, including a bridging course studying Alan Turing’s of the Faculty have been awarded major demands of students and funders, as pioneering work on computability and artificial intelligence. Later in the degree research grants from the European well as to the intensification of global students will choose from a wide range of papers, with an emphasis on courses Research Council, the John Templeton competitiveness. near the interface between the two subjects. The optional fourth year also provides The editors would like to thank the Foundation, and the Arts and Humanities the opportunity to undertake an in-depth research project. following for their advice and help in Research Council. Two of these projects The Philosophy Faculty at Oxford is well preparing Oxford Philosophy 2011: are outlined in more detail in this issue placed to meet these challenges. But

of Oxford Philosophy. Significant we rely on the continuing support of Martin Davies collaborative research projects are alumni, and of all those who believe in the James Knight complemented by the achievements significance of philosophy for intellectual Clive Rosenthal of the many exceptional individuals life, the ethical, moral and aesthetic Somerville College Professor Cécile Fabre FBA in the Faculty. To pick just one recent problems of our time, and the future of and notable example: Derek Parfit’s humanity. Editors Paul Lodge We are delighted to report that Cécile Fabre, Professor of Political Philosophy and Tom Moore Fellow of Lincoln College, has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy. monumental two-volume On What Matters, published this year by OUP, has Design keikoikeuchi.co.uk Professor Shearer West The British Academy was established by Royal Charter in 1902 and champions been hailed as “the most significant work Photography Keiko Ikeuchi and supports the humanities and social sciences. It aims to inspire, recognise Head of the Humanities Division Paul Lodge in ethics since Sidgwick’s masterpiece University of Oxford and support excellence and high achievement across the UK and internationally. was published in 1873” in the Times Printing Fingerprint Ltd Before being appointed to her present post at Oxford, Professor Fabre held a Professorship in Political Theory at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently Literary Supplement, and as “the most working on a two-volume monograph for Oxford University Press on the ethics of eagerly awaited book in philosophy since war, which she also written about for this edition of Oxford Philosophy. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations” in Times Higher Education. Photo: Keiko Ikeuchi

Call for Contributions to Oxford Philosophy 2012

If you would like to support the Oxford We have been extremely pleased to receive feedback from readers of the Philosophy Faculty, please contact us at first two issues of Oxford Philosophy. the address above. In the 2012 edition of the magazine we hope to include a section devoted to Letters to the Editors. These might take the form of responses to the Or give directly and securely online, by articles in Oxford Philosophy 2011, but we would be very happy to consider visiting the following website: any other comments or recollections about philosophy at Oxford that you would like to share. www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/philosophy Please send your contributions to: [email protected]

2 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 3 comment PEOPLE

In the coming academic year, Oxford Philosophy will welcome four new Tutorial Fellows. They introduce The DONS themselves below.

Anil Gomes Jeff Russell impact Trinity College Magdalen College of “impact” on philosophy It’s very exciting to be returning to Oxford to take up a I’m very pleased to return to Oxford after spending a term Tutorial Fellowship at Trinity. Having studied for both my in the Stanford-in-Oxford Programme as an undergraduate. undergraduate and graduate degrees at Oxford, I know the My PhD work has been at Rutgers and New York University great benefits – and great pleasures – of the Oxford system. under Ted Sider, mainly focused on issues at the intersection I can only try to emulate the wonderfully stimulating and of metaphysics, philosophical logic, and the philosophy of exciting tutorials which my tutors provided for me. physics. In particular, I’ve been working on certain questions Ralph Wedgwood considers one of the most recent After leaving Oxford I worked in the civil service and the about possible worlds, counterpart theory, and some Houses of Parliament, before taking up a position at Birkbeck arguments descended from Leibniz against absolute challenges to academic research in philosophy. College in the University of London, where I have spent the space and time, based on claims about the different last three very happy years. My research interests are in the locations material things could have had. I also do philosophy of mind and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and, work in philosophy of language and philosophy of in particular, on issues which arise at religion. their intersection. I’m looking forward to starting up new conversations about these and other topics with friends and he Higher Education Funding Council taken degree courses involving philosophy. about. Locke’s work on political philosophy colleagues in Oxford. of England (HEFCE), which allocates Studying philosophy helped these citizens helped to inspire the American Revolution government funding to English to have a sharper and deeper understanding of 1776 – almost 90 years after it was first Tuniversities, has recently announced its of many crucial issues, from the value of published in 1690. HEFCE is not interested decisions about the funding of academic democracy and human rights to the ethics of in waiting that long: it aims to encourage research. Despite widespread opposition from climate change. research that will have a beneficial impact within academia, HEFCE is forging ahead with more or less right away. what has come to be known as the “impact However, HEFCE explicitly states that the agenda” and allocating research funding in a “impact” that they are especially concerned How could philosophical research have the way that encourages universities to focus on to encourage does not include the impact kind of “demonstrable impact” that HEFCE is research that has “demonstrable benefits to of academic research on the “content of looking for? One way would be if the research the wider economy and society”. teaching”. The impact that they are looking is taken up by television or radio shows for includes “creating new businesses”, (so long as these programmes earn some Philosophers certainly believe that their “commercialising new products”, or improving measurable audience response). This seems research benefits society. In fact, I believe that “patient care or health outcomes”, not most likely to happen with research in applied excellent academic research is just intrinsically enriching the quality of university teaching. ethics. In this way, HEFCE has created a Josh Parsons Michail valuable: like public collections of rare powerful incentive for philosophy departments Corpus Christi College manuscripts or ancient artefacts, or like areas Philosophical research also has an impact to shift the focus of their research away from Peramatzis Worcester College of unspoilt natural wilderness, a flourishing through its intellectual influence on academics traditional theoretical questions to hot-button I grew up in Wellington, New culture of academic research is a public good. outside philosophy. Mathematicians like Alan issues in applied ethics, and then to tout this Zealand. I did my first degree After doing my BA and MA in there, my PhD in Canberra, In my view, such public goods would still be Turing were able to make great contributions research to “research users” among television Athens, I studied for the DPhil in Australia, held two successive a valuable asset to the whole society even if to the development of computers partly and radio producers. Philosophy at Oxford and held postdocs in St Andrews, only a few people enjoyed these goods to any because of the efforts of philosophical a Junior Research Fellowship at Scotland, and permanent significant extent. logicians such as Bertrand Russell to This incentive is likely to have a damaging Christ Church. positions in Davis, California, formulate rigorous definitions of the concept of effect on the quality of philosophical research. and then Dunedin, New Zealand. Of course, this view of the intrinsic value of mathematical proof. Philosophy is a seamless whole; even work I am particularly enthusiastic about my return to Oxford for two main reasons: First, I am looking forward to excellent academic research is controversial. in applied ethics needs to draw on ideas that I have published in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy the uniquely rewarding character of the Oxford tutorial Utilitarian philosophers would insist that However, according to HEFCE, the intellectual have been developed by a host of thinkers on of language, and philosophical logic, but think of system in which students as well as tutors benefit from myself as a generalist philosopher and as a citizen research can only benefit society if it causes a influence of academic research – even when the more theoretical side of the subject. An lively discussion and rigorous critical assessment of of the world. Since Oxford has without doubt the net rise in society’s overall level of happiness the influence extends across academic incentive to pursue this sort of “demonstrable philosophical theses and arguments; second, I am excited strongest philosophy department in the world, I am or welfare. In fact, there is reason to think that disciplines – is also not the sort of “impact” impact” would only make philosophical about the prospect of rejoining, and learning from, as well very much looking forward to being a part of it. philosophical research does indeed contribute that it is looking for. HEFCE is looking research shallower and less rigorous. as contributing to, the philosophy community at Oxford, to human happiness. But HEFCE’s narrow for benefits for “research users” outside which includes some of the greatest thinkers not only in my conception of “demonstrable benefits to the academia, such as businesses and health care All UK universities face an uncertain future own field, ancient philosophy, but also in all other areas of economy and society” seems to exclude all of providers (even general readers seem not to at this time, with sharp cuts in government philosophy. the ways in which philosophy does contribute count as “research users” here). funding, and the unknown effects of the new to welfare. tuition fees regime. It is particularly unfortunate Very occasionally, individual works of that the government is going to waste some Research in philosophy has a deep impact philosophical research have a direct impact on of its research funding on initiatives that will on university teaching. The best university political events. For example, J.S. Mill’s essay probably make academic research in this teachers are almost always scholars who are The Subjection of Women was a central part of country not better, but worse. actively engaged in their own research. Many the lobbying that led to the Married Women’s of the world’s best journalists, filmmakers, Property Act of 1870. In many cases, however, Ralph Wedgwood is Professor of lawyers, civil servants, and politicians will have this sort of influence takes decades to come Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Merton College.

4 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 5 memoir

arrived at Oxford in 1964 as a graduate of which regarded the other’s views as morally student. Ryle was the presiding figure at reprehensible. It took many years for that split that time, and the first thing I had to do to heal. Philosophers like to Iwas to report to him. I went in. He barked: “Name?” “Walker.” “Of?” I had no idea In most matters, though, Oxford philosophers think of themselves Parting what he meant. He repeated the question. I shared a broadly similar conception of what as particularly rational remained baffled. It turned out the answer was the important philosophical problems were, “Balliol”. He wanted to know my college. and how to resolve them. This may explain ‘ people. Are we? Reflections why we were so susceptible to unexpected He was a much more genial man than this revolutions in thinking. In 1970 Davidson first encounter suggested. We all attended came to Oxford: suddenly we stopped his seminars, which were held at the Indian On the eve of his retirement, Institute – Philosophy had no building in those days. We attended Ayer’s too, and ’ Ralph Walker considers indeed many others, because specializing some of the ways Philosophy was rather discouraged. But Ryle’s classes always seemed to be at the centre of things. at Oxford has changed in the We were also indebted to him in another way forty-seven years since he – the books he received as editor of Mind were donated to the New Bodleian’s ‘Room 303’, arrived. a specialist collection that eventually became the Philosophy Faculty Library.

The classes Grice gave were particularly remarkable. He would stride in, carrying a cricket bag, and say “I haven’t prepared anything to talk about this week, but on my way here I was thinking about a puzzle …” – and there would follow half an hour of completely creative philosophy, with a first- rate discussion afterwards. Equally creative, though very different, was Miss Anscombe. I was lucky enough to be supervised in one term by Ayer, and in the next by Anscombe. Ayer was very efficient, and made all the objections I really ought to have thought of. With Anscombe there were always very long silences, during which she smoked cigars, but New Building, Magdalen College Photo: Paul Lodge then, every time, she came up with something that I knew I could never have thought of talking about Wittgenstein and turned to myself or found in any literature. Once I tried Tarskian truth-theories. In early 1972 we all pointing out that the idea I had been defending agreed with Quine’s dismissal of “Aristotelian was one she had herself argued in print. essentialism”; then everyone read Kripke, and “Oh, did I?” she said. “But it can’t be right, by the autumn the only question was about because …”. necessity of origin.

Oxford philosophy at that time, and for Philosophers like to think of themselves as some years after I became a member of the particularly rational people. Are we? Fashions Sub-Faculty (as it then was), was still quite may change less rapidly now, but change preoccupied with ordinary language and they do. A while ago I was seconded for with verifiability. There was more of a shared some years to the University administration approach than there is now, and there were in Wellington Square. When I went there, Dummett’s anti-realism was a central concern. more general philosophical discussions, Ralph Walker was Fellow and Tutor in involving nearly everyone, than there are in When I returned, the interest had died. Had Philosophy at Magdalen College from these more eclectic times. But there was one anti-realism been conclusively refuted? It 1972 to 2011. He served as Chairman area in which the disagreements went too would be nice to think that there had been of the Philosophy Sub-Faculty 1986-87; Chairman of the Literae Humaniores Board deep for good discussion, and that was moral really good reasons for the changes of 1987-89; and Chairman of the General approach there have been here in my lifetime. philosophy (then dominated by metaethics). Board of Oxford University 1999-2000. Anscombe’s denunciation of Hare had led to In some cases, I think there have been. But Between 2000 and 2006 he was the first an unfortunate split between two groups, each always? Head of the Humanities Division.

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Photo: Keiko Ikeuchi Focus After five years, Stout moved to the chair of In contrast, Thomas Nagel, who completed In a critical notice of The Concept of Mind, Logic and Metaphysics at St Andrews and the BPhil in 1960 and then a Harvard PhD, Farrell suggested, “we are reaching the stage was succeeded as Wilde Reader by William argued in a famous paper, ‘What is it like where not much work on the mind can be McDougall, one of the founders of the British to be a bat?’, that the objective sciences done in future by philosophers who are not Psychological Society, and then by William inevitably leave out subjective truths about also steeped in psychology”. Farrell was not Brown, under whose leadership an Institute of conscious experience. David Chalmers, who completely right about this because, in fact, Philosophy Experimental Psychology was established in studied mathematics at Oxford (1987–88) many philosophers have continued to do 1936. before moving to the USA for doctoral first-rate work on philosophy of mind without work in philosophy, and who gave the 2010 engaging in depth with the sciences of mind. and Brown had been an undergraduate at Christ John Locke Lectures, has also defended a But Oxford, with its distinctive institutional Church from 1899, taking Psychology as a resolutely non-reductionist view of the “what it history, provides an attractive environment special subject in Greats and winning the John is like” of experience in The Conscious Mind: for collaborations between philosophers and Psychology Locke Scholarship. Three decades later, he In Search of a Fundamental Theory (1996) and psychologists, and empirically informed work expressed some frustration that these were The Character of Consciousness (2010). in philosophy of mind has certainly increased. still the only two ways in which psychology at figured in Oxford examinations, writing in the In Oxford today, there is a thriving community Oxford philosophers of mind are currently Oxford Magazine (11 May 1933), “psychology of academics and graduate students who engaged in research on a wide range of topics has encountered more difficulty breaking work on this and other questions in philosophy at the interface with psychology, including away and finding its own level in Oxford than of mind. In recent years, the area has been attention and visual perception, the boundary in any other university”, and in the British strengthened by the appointment of a between perception and cognition, belief and Oxford Medical Journal (30 May 1936), “the whole specialist University Lecturer in Philosophy of delusions, the phenomenology of thinking, the by Martin Davies subject has been a subordinate one within the Mind and by the establishment of a graduate limits of introspection, agency and decision School of Philosophy”. But psychology did scholarship, generously supported by the making, the unity of consciousness, and achieve independence, and in 1947 the first Laces Trust. Peter Forrest, who achieved the relationship between neuroimaging and Professor of Psychology, George Humphrey, a Distinction in the BPhil examination philosophy of mind. This research nourishes was appointed and the Honour School of this summer, has been awarded a Laces our teaching of Psychology and Philosophy PPP took its first students. A single-honours Scholarship for doctoral research under Tim students, particularly through the new FHS psychology course followed in 1969, and today Bayne’s supervision. The scope of the Laces paper on Philosophy of Cognitive Science, the Department of Experimental Psychology is Scholarship is defined in terms of relevance which will be examined for the first time in part of the Medical Sciences Division. to psychiatry, and we anticipate further 2012. developments, ranging from philosophy of uring the twentieth century, Since 1947, Wilde Readers have been mind into philosophy of psychiatry, in the next Martin Davies is Wilde Professor of the Honour School of Literae philosophers, beginning with Brian Farrell, who few years. Mental Philosophy and Fellow of Humaniores was joined by six held the Readership for thirty-two years. Farrell Corpus Christi College other joint degree courses in made significant contributions to philosophical commentary on psychoanalysis but his best whichD Oxford undergraduates could study Courtesy of Clive Rosenthal philosophy. The first was PPE (Modern known paper is ‘Experience’, published in Greats) and the next, in 1947, Psychology, 1950, just a year after Gilbert Ryle’s book, Philosophy and Physiology (PPP). Beginning The Concept of Mind. Ryle famously rejected with students coming up in October 2011, dualism about mind and body as being a the Psychology and Physiology combination myth about “the ghost in the machine”. Farrell Profile from PPP will be incorporated into a new agreed with Ryle on this, but thought that course in Biomedical Sciences, and the psychologists and physiologists might still Psychology and Philosophy combination will worry that their scientific accounts of seeing, Tim Bayne is University Lecturer in continue as the successor degree to PPP. remembering, or thinking left out sensations, Philosophy of Mind and Tutorial Fellow feelings, and experience. Farrell’s aim was to at St Catherine’s College. The connection between philosophy and reassure the scientists that there was really no psychology has a long history at Oxford. such problem as the one that they thought they faced. Tim is an editor of the Oxford Companion to Consciousness John Locke (1632–1704) was a student and, (2009) and the author of The Unity of Consciousness (2010), for a time, a tutor at Christ Church before both published by Oxford University Press. leaving Oxford to enter the household of Farrell asked his reader to imagine that psychologists and physiologists had found the first Earl of Shaftesbury. Locke’s Essay In the first part of The Unity of Consciousness, Tim asks out all they could about a Martian’s sensory Concerning Human Understanding (1690) is what it might mean to say that consciousness is unified. one of the great works of British empiricist systems, or a bat’s sensory systems, and yet There are many aspects to the unity of consciousness, but philosophy and he is also regarded as the scientists still wondered what it would be the one on which he focuses concerns the claim that the the father of English psychology. The first like to be a Martian, or what it would be like experiences that a person enjoys at a particular point in Oxford post in psychology was established to be a bat. Farrell argued, on philosophical time are experienced ‘together’; they don’t occur as isolated in 1898, more then two hundred years after grounds, that the impression that science atoms of experience, but as the parts of a single global state the publication of Locke’s Essay, when leaves out the “what it is like” of experience of consciousness. G.F. Stout (editor of the journal Mind from is an illusion and that, in reality, experience is 1892 to 1920) was appointed to the Wilde subsumed by behaviour. The second part of the book examines the question of Readership in Mental Philosophy, in the whether consciousness is always unified in this sense, Faculty of Literae Humaniores. The Wilde in The question that Farrell thought would or whether – as many have claimed – this form of unity question was Henry Wilde FRS, an electrical worry psychologists and physiologists is, in can break down. Drawing on research in neuroscience, engineer and a notable benefactor who essence: Do the sciences of the mind leave out psychiatry and neuropsychology, Tim argues that the unity of endowed, not only the Wilde Readership consciousness? It is still debated in philosophy consciousness is a deep feature of human experience, and and the Henry Wilde Prize (for outstanding of mind and the opposing positions are well that, even when consciousness loses its normal coherence, performance in Philosophy in Final represented by Oxford alumni. Daniel Dennett, subjects retain a single global state of consciousness.

Honour Schools), but also the John Locke whose DPhil (1965) was supervised by Gilbert The final third of the book explores some of the implications Scholarship in Mental Philosophy (now the Ryle, has defended a position similar to that the unity of consciousness might have for our John Locke Prize) and the annual Locke Farrell’s in many articles and books, including understanding of the mind, with a particular focus on the Lectures. Consciousness Explained (1991). way in which the unity of consciousness might constrain the search for an adequate theory of consciousness.

Tim is now at work on a textbook in the philosophy of mind.

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Photo: Keiko Ikeuchi ESSAY

cause for which they fight, soldiers are not to e.g., shooting at him, we would certainly say grounds. Soldiers, it is often said, act under be held responsible for their participation in that Alan is liable to being shot at, in virtue of duress: they are ordered to go to war, and it, subsumed as they are under the group to wrongfully attacking Bob. Moreover, we would should therefore be seen as instruments of which they belong – their country’s army – nor certainly not deem it permissible for Alan to kill the state rather than autonomous agents. are they to be condemned for killing enemy Bob at t3 in his own defence: Alan, we would Moreover, it is also often said, soldiers are soldiers. As Alfred Lord Tennyson famously think, ought to stop attacking Bob. not capable of discerning whether the war has it in The Charge of the Light Brigade which they are ordered to wage is a just war “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason Why not hold soldiers up to the same – indeed, they ought not to be expected to why, Theirs but to do and die.” So soldiers, standards of morality? Why not insist, then, engage in such a reflective process – and it is simply in virtue of belonging to that category, that soldiers who kill in prosecution of an unfair, therefore, to hold them responsible for are legitimate targets. On the other hand, unjust cause, such as an unwarranted their participation in it. soldiers may not deliberately kill innocent aggression on another country’s territory, civilians, however just their war and however are thereby acting wrongly? By that token, And yet, as some of the aforementioned explicitly they might be ordered to do so: civilians who make a significant contribution to proponents of the revisionist account have for that they are clearly and unambiguously an unjust war, though they are not themselves noted, the duress and the epistemic objections responsible. By implication, civilians are not carrying out acts of killing, might also, at least to holding ordinary soldiers responsible for legitimate targets, simply in virtue of being at first sight, be legitimate targets. Thus, if Don their participation in an unjust war prove too civilians, and irrespective of what they actually Corleone orders Luca Brazzi to kill a member much, since it follows that soldiers cannot be do for the war. of the Tattaglia family, and if the only way for held responsible for wrongful acts of killing the latter to save his life is by killing Corleone, committed under orders against civilians. Put The questions of whether the justness or it seems that he may do so; and if Charles differently, exonerating soldiers who are safely unjustness of their cause makes any difference gives a gun to Alan in the foreknowledge that ensconced in their barracks from the burden to soldiers’ permission to kill one another, and Alan will use it to kill Bob unwarrantedly, and of reaching a judgement as to the justness whether civilians who take part in the war are if the only way for Bob to save his life is by of the war and of acting on that judgement, legitimate targets, are at the heart of the revival killing Charles, it seems that he may do so. while requiring them to reflect on the moral of the just war tradition in contemporary moral Likewise, it would seem, with civilians. status of the orders they are given in the heat and political philosophy. This revival started of battle, seems incoherent. Likewise, it seems Theirs to reason with the publication of Michael Walzer’s One cannot underestimate how profoundly incoherent to deem them bound by an order seminal book Just and Unjust Wars in 1977, revisionist that view is (though it in fact wrongfully to cross the border into a neutral and has gone from strength to strength as resurrects the scholastic thought, as found country and kill enemy soldiers who resist their leading philosophers have entered the fray. notably in Vitoria’s writings, that ordinary ex hypothesi wrongful aggression, while at the soldiers can, at least sometimes, be expected same time imposing on them a moral and legal Walzer sought to defend the traditional view not to fight for an unjust cause). Put bluntly, it obligation to disobey an order deliberately to outlined above, though he did allow that implies that the acts of killing committed by kill innocent civilians. why?by Cécile Fabre civilians who work in munitions factory are German soldiers in prosecution of Germany’s legitimate targets. Recently however, the wrongful aggression against Belgium and So if the horror of war resides in what it leads tradition’s account of the moral status of France in 1914 were akin to acts of murder. individuals to do to each other, as Tolstoy soldiers and civilians during war has come It also implies that civilian leaders who take and Owen tell us, then it must be morally n the eve of the battle of Borodino, the number) and they announce a victory, For both Tolstoy and Owen, war really is under sustained attack, particularly at the their country into an unjust war are legitimate appraised as the concatenation of individual Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, one of supposing that the more people they have about individuals maiming and killing each hands of Tony Coady (Morality and Political targets – that, for example, if the 2003 acts, committed by individual agents whom the main characters in War and killed the greater their achievement…” other, and it is precisely that which elicits the Violence, 2008), Frances M. Kamm (‘Failures war against Iraq was indeed unjust, then it is appropriate, much more often than is OPeace and, in that scene at least, Tolstoy’s former’s cold fury and the latter’s bitter anger. of Just War Theory: Terror, Harm, and Justice,’ Iraqi forces would not have been guilty of standardly thought, to regard as morally mouthpiece, describes war as follows: Compare this with Wilfred Owen’s well-known And yet, it seems that war is also irreducibly in Ethics 114 (2004), 650-692), David Rodin wrongdoing towards Prime Minister Blair, let responsible for what they do – be they soldiers rejection of the romanticism of war in Dulce et collective: it is fought by groups of people and (War and Self-Defense, 2002) and most alone President Bush, had they killed them. or civilians. Tennyson got it wrong: it is theirs “But what is war? What is needed for success Decorum est. more often than not, as Owen himself painfully notably Jeff McMahan (Killing in War, 2009). to reason why. in warfare? …The aim of war is murder; the reminds us, for the sake of communal values On their view, the thesis that soldiers qua The view that leaders or weapons methods of war are spying, treachery, and “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood such as territorial integrity and national self- soldiers are legitimate targets whilst civilians manufacturers who, respectively, authorize their encouragement, the ruin of a country’s Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, determination. qua civilians are not is profoundly at odds the war and supply troops are liable to being Cécile Fabre is Professor of Political inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud with a fundamental principle of morality, viz., killed might not prove disquieting to many. Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow provision the army, and fraud and falsehood Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, The tension between the individual and the whether or not individuals are liable to being But the claim that soldiers ought not to in Philosophy at Lincoln College. She is author of the two-volume: A termed military craft. ...[Soldiers] meet, as we My friend, you would not tell with such high zest collective dimensions of war is nowhere more killed is dependent both on what they do (as participate in an unjust war, and that their acts Cosmopolitan Theory of The Just War, shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another; To children ardent for some desperate glory, evident than in the ways in which the laws opposed to who they are) and on the moral of killing, if they do participate, are wrongful forthcoming with Oxford University they kill and maim tens of thousands, and The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est of war, and the moral norms which underpin status of their actions. If Alan attempts to kill in virtue of the unjustness of the war, has Press. then have thanksgiving services for having Pro patria mori.” those laws, treat soldiers and civilians. One Bob at time t1 without just cause, and if Bob elicited considerable criticism from many killed so many people (they even exaggerate traditional view is that, however unjust the manages momentarily to thwart him at t2 by, moral philosophers, including Walzer, on two

10 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 11 ALUMNI

DPhil to dot.com Richard Price talks about his move from philosopher of perception to web entrepreneur and founder of Academia.edu.

remember first becoming interested in internet, and I built a student accommodation philosophy when I was at school, at site in Oxford, LiveOut.co.uk, with some other around the age of fifteen or sixteen. Some Oxford students. Ifriends and I would vigorously debate topics such as free will, the existence of God, and My entrepreneurial ventures were a side communism. I realized that there was this interest while I was pursuing my DPhil in subject called ‘philosophy’ and that I loved philosophy, which I was having the time of my thinking about philosophical questions. I life with. Tim Williamson was my supervisor did PPE at St Catherine’s, and did as much and his standards of precision, and approach philosophy as I could. I stayed on to do the to philosophy, had a huge impact on me. I was As I was starting to finish my DPhil, I realized I Valley is to technology startups what the Oxford often zoom along through logical transitions at BPhil at St Catherine’s, and then the DPhil at working on a question within the philosophy was extremely torn about what my next steps Philosophy Faculty is to philosophy: you can such speed that we don’t notice minor glitches Corpus Christi and All Souls. Doing philosophy of perception regarding how rich the content should be. I had been very fortunate to win immerse yourself completely in a community in those transitions. I think one thing that at Oxford was an incredibly exciting of visual experience is. Does visual experience an All Souls Prize Fellowship, and I had the of people who are all obsessively passionate philosophers do is try to slow those transitions experience for me. only represent a sparse set of properties, such option to pursue research on that fellowship about the same thing as you. down, so that we are more sensitive to glitches as colours and shapes, or does it represent for another few years after my DPhil finished. that may occur. After experiencing a glitch, My other passion in life, aside from philosophy, richer properties too, such as the property of I decided to try out entrepreneurship for a After three years in operation, and after raising something that doesn’t feel quite right, instead is entrepreneurship. After I finished my BPhil, I being a tomato, the property of being sad, and couple of years, and if my efforts failed, I another £1 million in venture capital, we have of marching ahead, philosophers will magnify was very keen to set up a business during the so on? would still have three years left on my All Souls about 370,000 registered users, and about that sensation of something not feeling quite summer. I created a company called ‘Richard’s fellowship to pursue research. 1.7 million monthly visitors. Every day around right, in order to see whether there is an Banana Bakery’, selling banana cakes to Problem-finding comes 1,500 people sign up, and around 2,000 underlying problem in the rational transition. cafés and offices in London. I was doing all The business idea I had has turned into papers are uploaded. We have five employees the baking of the cakes in my Mum’s kitchen before problem-solving: Academia.edu. I saw sites like LinkedIn and and are based in downtown San Francisco. When looking for business ideas, the analogue in London. I had two Magimixes on the go you have to find and Facebook growing incredibly quickly, and I There are many challenges to building an is that we often zoom around in life having for a few hours a day, and the oven on most wanted to build a platform where researchers internet company: ensuring that you have adapted our behavior so successfully that we of the time. There was banana cake mixture clearly articulate the could share their research with others, and a clear product vision, recruiting the best don’t often notice the constraints that we are everywhere, and I think I drove my Mum up the‘ problem before you can keep up with research in their field, both with software engineers you possibly can, and skilfully navigating around. When hunting for wall a bit. ease and minimal friction. The way ensuring the company is adequately financed business ideas, one has to slow down when set about trying to solve it. Academia.edu works is that academics sign so you can pay all the bills. It’s extremely one feels that one is navigating around some At the end of the summer, and over the up and create an academic profile, where they enjoyable to face all these challenges and to constraint, and then examine that constraint course of the vacations during the first year The graduate community at Oxford was add their research interests and upload their try to overcome them. to see whether it can be removed. This is of my DPhil, I turned the cake business into a incredibly alive with passionate and brilliant papers. They can follow other academics on one of the similarities between philosophy sandwich business called ‘Dashing Lunches’ people, and I benefited almost more than I can the site, and see research updates from Some people ask me whether there are and entrepreneurship for me: in the case of (I was dashing around London on a bike say from being immersed in it, often talking the people they are following in their any connections between philosophy and philosophy, one is on the lookout for logical delivering sandwiches to offices). Running about philosophy into the small hours of’ the Academia.edu News Feed. entrepreneurship. I think there is at least one problems with a train of thought, and in the both of these businesses was exhausting night. I remember one philosophy conversation connection, which is about attitudes towards case of entrepreneurship, one is on the lookout work, but the idea of making my own products with a friend of mine, Hemdat Lerman, going To get Academia.edu going, I raised £312,500 problem-finding. Problem-finding comes for practical problems in a train of activity. Among Academia.edu’s 370,000 and making money out of them was incredibly on for twelve hours with one half an hour in venture capital funding from London, and before problem-solving: you have to find and registered users are many notable thrilling to me. After a year of running Dashing break. I found philosophy at Oxford to be an moved to San Francisco in order to be part of clearly articulate the problem before you can philosophers. Lunches, I decided to try something on the exhilarating experience. the Silicon Valley technology culture. Silicon set about trying to solve it. In everyday life, we

12 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 13 projects

to formulate and tackle new questions in the accept more than what is expressed and Overall, the project will yield new insights in the Reflection and foundations of the formal sciences. Some of proved in the theory. These incompleteness adequacy of formal systems for describing the these new issues are investigated in Reflection and inexpressibility phenomena concern subject matter of the formal sciences and their Incompleteness in the and Incompleteness in the Formal Sciences. not only theories about a single kind of scope and significance. Formal Sciences objects – such as sets, numbers, computer One example of such an issue arises by programmes, expressions of a language http://users.ox.ac.uk/~reflect/Reflection_ Funded by the Arts and Humanities reflecting on very general puzzling limitative – but any theory containing such a theory. and_Incompleteness Research Council (AHRC) results in logic. It turns out that under fairly Hence they hint at a very general limitation of general circumstances the soundness of a language and theorizing. Project Directors: Volker Halbach & theory cannot be proved and cannot even Gabriel Uzquiano be expressed within the theory itself. For One can try to close the gap between the instance, it is impossible to state or prove content of a theory and what is implicit in the Commenced January 2011 within the theory that all consequences of the acceptance of a theory by various means. For with employment for three theory are true. This applies to theories that instance, the soundness of the theory can be Research funding postdoctoral researchers and contain a modicum of assumptions about added as a new axiom of the theory. To this one DPhil studentship. numbers, sets, or strings of symbols; such end one one can add a truth predicate and theories cannot express the notion of truth appropriate assumptions about it to the theory. for such languages, as is shown by Tarski’s The soundness of the original theory can be Since antiquity philosophers have been celebrated theorem on the undefinability an explicit consequence of the new theory, but interested in the foundations of the formal of truth. According to Gödel’s famous the soundness of the new theory itself will not sciences and, in particular, mathematics. incompleteness theorems, not even the be included in the new theory. However, many topics in the field emerged consistency of a theory can be a consequence much more recently. This is partly because of that very theory (as long as the theory is The project will investigate whether one some of the formal sciences, such as formal consistent and certain natural conditions are met). is led by these attempts to close the gap linguistics, computer science, and formal with explicit and implicit assumptions of a philosophy only came into prominence in the When we accept such a theory, we are theory. This is only one example of some of 21st last few decades. Moreover, some of the older committed to the soundness of that theory. the inexpressibility phenomena that will be Century style disciplines such as logic and mathematics If we believe that the theory has false studied in the project. Others concern the have developed very rapidly over the last consequences, we had better not accept the inexpressibility of semantic notions and the century and completely new perspectives theory. But by the limitative results mentioned ontological indefinite extensibility of the set- have been opened. The development of above, the soundness claim cannot be part of theoretic universe. modern formal logic has enabled philosophers the theory. Hence when we accept a theory we

Kurt Gödel

Like the natural sciences, What is there at the bedrock of reality? What hypothesis that nearly all ancient ontologies in a different area of ancient philosophy (Pre- Power Structuralism are the ultimate building blocks out of which account for all there is in the cosmos by Socratics; Plato; Aristotle; Hellenistic and Latin Philosophy now derives much everything else is constituted? Are they things positing a sole elementary building block: not philosophy; Plotinus) and one specializing in in Ancient Ontologies (objects, particles), or activities of some objects or processes, but powers. Powers contemporary metaphysics. of its research funding from sort? Or is there something else, even more underlie both objects and processes, and fundamental than they are? are more fundamental than either of them. The contribution of the fellow specializing in external grants for group Funded by the European Research Powers are properties directed towards an contemporary metaphysics will be to help Council (ERC) These questions fascinated and challenged end (e.g., the power to heat). They dispose investigate the question of what, if anything, is projects. These grants provide the ancients as much as they challenge their possessor to be or act in a certain distinctive about ancient power structuralism. money for research leave Project Director: Anna Marmodoro and fascinate us. Yet, there is evidence way, which is manifested in appropriate One of the aims of the project will be to that the ancients conceived of the building circumstances (e.g., something with the power compare and contrast the position of the for established academics Commenced April 2011 blocks of reality very differently than has to heat is disposed to heat something cooler). ancient thinkers under consideration with with staged employment for six been traditionally thought. This £1 million A world built solely out of powers is structured the basic tenets of causal structuralism in postdoctoral researchers and research award from the European Research in a web of ontological dependencies between contemporary metaphysics and physics – that and support postdoctoral one DPhil studentship. Council explores a new hypothesis about powers. For brevity, this metaphysical is, not to offer a contemporary structuralist fellowships and doctoral how the ancients conceived of the universe position may be called Power Structuralism. rendering of the ancient ontologies under and its contents during the first millennium The primary goal of the Project will be to consideration; but rather, to illuminate the past studentships. of Western civilization. The ramifications of investigate which ancient ontologies are through its differences as well as similarities this hypothesis, if correct, are far reaching power-structuralist ones. with the present, and where possible bring with respect to our understanding of ancient out insights that might be unique to ancient Two of Oxford Philosophy’s philosophy. But what is the world like, for the ancients, if varieties of structuralism. all there is are powers? How are all entities research projects which have The traditional view is that the ancients derived from structures of powers? Are there The project has an international Advisory conceived of the universe either as built out objects over and above the relations between Board including over twenty academics recently been successful in of objects (whether concrete them? If not, how are objects constituted just from various institutions. There will also be or abstract) or as built out of out of relations? If there are objects, do they Academic Visitors affiliated with the project; securing major funding are processes; on that view Plato have natures over and above their intrinsic/ and external collaborators working on other, described here. and Aristotle, for example, stand extrinsic relations? If not, what grounds the thematically related, projects of their own. The on one side and Heraclitus distinctness and identity of objects? project team will work in close collaboration stands on the other. with members of the Faculty of Philosophy, To explore these and other related questions, within which its research activities will be In a radical departure from the European Research Council award will embedded. Such research activities (seminars, this traditional interpretation, be used to create a research team based in conferences, etc), will run throughout the the project will explore the the Philosophy Faculty at Oxford comprising project and will be open to anyone interested. five postdoctoral fellows, each specializing

www.power-structuralism.ox.ac.uk

14 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 15 Lectures

Ancient Philosophies as Ways of Life John Cooper discusses the theme of his 2011 Locke Lectures.

hilosophy today, like most subjects of his life, day by day. In his philosophical authoritative guide for how we ought to live, in taught in universities, is an intensely discussions he was pursuing “wisdom” – all the detailed preferences, choices, practical theoretical matter: there are philosophical knowledge about human nature attitudes, and individual actions making up a Pphilosophical theories of knowledge, of ethics, and the human good – and he was shaping human life. of metaphysics, of aesthetics and logic. his life from his philosophical conclusions, Philosophy consists of theoretical arguments in the hope of living a fully good life, a wise Third, a philosophically complete grasp of and analyses. Western philosophy has one based on philosophical principles. all the (alleged) truths of the philosophical been like that all the way back to its ancient Plato’s Socrates, as represented in the system in question is regarded as providing Greek beginnings. Think of Thales’ idea that Apology and other Socratic dialogues, such a sufficient basis of psychological motivation everything is ultimately water, or Parmenides’ as Protagoras, Euthydemus, Euthyphro and for living the life of philosophy, as so worries about the nature of being – not to other dialogues about particular moral virtues articulated. All these Greek philosophers hold mention Plato’s elaborate theory that Forms, (piety, courage, temperance, etc), became the that the human power of reason possesses or Ideas, are the true reality, lying behind inspiration for the whole subsequent tradition motivational force of its own: because we are the physical and perceptible world, a world of making philosophy a way of life: not only by nature rational beings, every adult human that is just a metaphysical shadow of the the Epicureans and Stoics, but Plato himself being is moved toward action simply and Forms. Yet in antiquity many philosophers in dialogues such as Phaedo and Republic, directly in rationally holding that something also did, and taught, philosophy as a way Aristotle in his Ethics, Plotinus in his Enneads, that they might do will bring something good of life: Epicureans and Stoics had sharply and even, in their peculiar way, the Pyrrhonian for them. Further, when this power is cultivated conflicting comprehensive world-views, skeptics (Sextus Empiricus, and others). and perfected through philosophical reflection but to be an Epicurean or a Stoic famously and thought, to the point where one can claim also meant living in a quite specific and These philosophers all had very different that it has achieved a complete, fully and distinctive way, guided by that Epicurean theories – mutually opposed and contending deeply reasoned grasp of the human good or Stoic philosophical world-view. Though – in moral psychology and ethics, just as (one’s own good), that grasp becomes a nowadays we don’t usually highlight this they did in all other parts of philosophy. sufficient and invincibly powerful psychological aspect of ancient philosophies when we teach Hence their respective ways of life were very motivation actually to live from the guidance them, the idea that one might literally live different, and in many ways opposed to one provided in that comprehensive philosophy. In one’s philosophy has an undoubted appeal: another. But three features, all prominently that sense, philosophy actually steers your life, it gives philosophy, as a subject for study, a displayed in what we learn about Socrates’ and doesn’t just offer you guidance for it. special kind of seriousness. But what does it philosophy of life from Plato, unite them. First, mean? Where did the ancient philosophers the experience and practice of philosophical There might be such a thing as a distinctive who conceived philosophy that way get the reasoning and investigation is regarded as one way of life of physics or medicine – a life idea that philosophy should (somehow) be of the most highly valuable sorts of activity devoted with passion to the practice of those your way of life? How did they conceive that our nature and natural capacities make professions, taken as central components of philosophical theory, that it could be a basis available to human beings; philosophical a person’s life. There might even be a life of for living? discussion and thinking become one of the literature, in which, in addition, one shapes most centrally good activities, a constant and lives one’s daily personal life, and one’s Interestingly, we don’t find evidence that focus of your life, in any of these philosophical moral life, through inspiration drawn from anyone earlier than Socrates thought of ways of life. novels and poems one loves. But because philosophy in that way. But in Plato’s Apology, philosophy as a way of life, understood in where Plato has Socrates defend himself Second, philosophy is regarded as the this Greek way, combines all three of these against charges of impiety and corrupt highest – indeed, sole – authoritative means of features, including this most important third The idea that one teaching, Socrates presents his whole life learning about human nature, the human good, one, only philosophy claims to offer a totally as a life of philosophy – not only in his daily the human virtues. Accordingly, philosophical consuming way of life. might literally live devotion to philosophical discussions and reasoning works out, explains, defends, questionings, but in the very fabric of his moral and justifies the truly best and happiest John Cooper is Professor of Philosophy at Princeton one’s philosophy has University. He is author of Reason and Human Good commitments and indeed in leading the whole way of living. Thus, philosophy is made the in Aristotle (1975), Reason and Emotion (1999) and ‘ Knowledge, Nature, and the Good (2004). an undoubted appeal.

Podcasts of John’s lectures are available at: www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/lectures/john_locke_lectures

16 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 ’ 17 obituary

In these papers, Foot was already taking the view – quite standard among ancient philosophers – that the virtues have to be justified in terms of their benefiting the agent. In ‘Morality as a A Life in Celebration System of Hypothetical Imperatives’ (1972), she concluded that morality is no more ‘categorical’ omerville College hosted two the Doctrine of Double Effect’. In (to use Kant’s term) than etiquette. Whether events on 18 and 19 March ‘Teaching Virtue’, Anselm Müller you have a reason to be moral depends on the 2011 to celebrate Philippa argued provocatively that bringing up desires you have; but, like Hume, Foot expected SFoot’s life. At a memorial occasion a child should not be thought of as a that many of us would continue to ‘volunteer’ to held in the Hall, some two hundred skill, but rather as what Aristotle calls be moral. people heard accounts of her life and a praxis. Sir Anthony Kenny closed work from former colleagues and the Symposium with a paper entitled It is a mark of Foot’s philosophical integrity that pupils, and from a recent Director of ‘Virtue, Law and Morality’. Fittingly, she published a recantation of this position in Oxfam who described her sixty year Kenny and other speakers drew also 1994, in which she said that she had come to see association with that charity. A talk on the work of Elizabeth Anscombe, morality as depending not on contingent desires, by Sir Michael Dummett, read out by who had been a colleague of Foot’s but on a conception of practical rationality his son, paid tribute to her as a friend at Somerville; Foot often used to grounded in facts about creatures such as and praised her work and writings. speak of the stimulus she got from ourselves. It was this position that Foot set out at Dummett called her monograph conversations with Anscombe in the more length in Natural Goodness (2001). Human Natural Goodness “the greatest work College’s Senior Common Room. beings are co-operative, and we need the virtues on moral philosophy since at least to flourish. This view is combined with another G.E. Moore”. Among the ninety who attended Aristotelian thesis – that happiness, at least in the Symposium were professional part, consists in living virtuously. To honour her memory, Somerville philosophers from all over the U.K., also arranged and hosted a and from Bulgaria, Germany and Italy From the beginning, Foot emphasized the Moral Philosophy Symposium as well as the U.S. The event also role of the virtues in ethics, and she is often the day before, with talks from attracted plenty who would not class described as a ‘virtue ethicist’ (a label she herself six philosophers on topics close themselves as philosophers but as rejected, perhaps because she saw herself in to Foot’s work. Gavin Lawrence interested amateurs, including some normative ethics as primarily in opposition to of UCLA opened the Symposium of Philippa Foot’s former pupils. They consequentialism alone, and not the kind of discussing a topic Foot had written were intrigued and delighted to take ‘deontological’ ethics found in the work of W.D. much about: can a wicked life, or part in live philosophical debate again Ross, Prichard, and others). Her ‘Utilitarianism for that matter an ultimately fruitless after so many years. As one of them and the Virtues’ (1985) outlines a significant one, nonetheless be counted a wrote: “It was just great to see so challenge to utilitarian and other forms of happy one? Other talks were given many philosophers so happy and Photo: Norm Schindler consequentialism: to give an account of what it by Sarah Broadie (a former student delighted to be with each other, all means for a state of affairs to be ‘good, period’, and now Professor at St Andrews), talking about profoundly meaningful rather than good for some being or beings. on ‘Aristotle on Practical Truth’, and things and trying all the time to Michael Thompson of Pittsburgh discover, or to persuade each other, One of Foot’s most influential legacies is the on ‘I and You’. Ralph Wedgwood, what exactly the profound meanings Philippa Foot so-called ‘trolley problem’, the many variations now of Merton College, defended are.” on which have given rise to what is now jokingly the Doctrine of Double Effect, Philippa Ruth Foot (née Bosanquet), Tutor in called ‘trolleyology’. In ‘The Problem of Abortion acknowledging Foot’s important Lesley Brown and the Doctrine of Double Effect’ (1967), Foot article ‘The Problem of Abortion and Emeritus Fellow in Philosophy Philosophy at Somerville College from 1950-69, Somerville College asks us to compare two cases. In the first, a died on 3 October 2010, her 90th birthday. magistrate can save the lives of five innocent people held by a mob, but only by framing hilippa Foot was one of the most Foot did not publish a monograph until she emotions, attitudes, or prescriptions. In two and executing another innocent person. In the important moral philosophers of the was over eighty. Most of her work was in the landmark articles at the end of that decade, second, the driver of a runaway trolley, about to 20th century, known especially for her form of highly original, deeply thoughtful, ‘Moral Arguments’ and ‘Moral Beliefs’, Foot kill five workers on the line, switches to another Ppioneering work in contemporary virtue ethics. and finely crafted articles. These were argued that this view of ethical judgements track, on which there is only one person working. She was also one of the founders of Oxfam mainly on ethics – on the nature of ethical was far too thin. It allows that the judgement The maths in each case seems the same: five and a granddaughter of U.S. President Grover judgements (metaethics), on theories about ‘No one should look at hedgehogs in the light lives in exchange for one. So why do most of Cleveland. how we should act (normative ethics), and of the moon’ – if expressed in the way that us think the driver should switch tracks, while on particular problems, such as abortion and moral judgements are expressed – can count the magistrate should not frame the innocent Foot matriculated in 1939, and was a Lecturer euthanasia (practical ethics). Many of them are as a moral judgement like any other. Morality person? at Somerville from 1947 to 1950; a Tutorial collected in Virtues and Vices (1978) and Moral must have a point, and there are standards of Fellow between 1950 and 1969; Senior Dilemmas (2002). appropriateness for moral evaluations. These Roger Crisp Research Fellow 1969 to 1988 and Honorary evaluations have to be brought within the Professor of Philosophy and Uehiro Fellow in Philosophy Fellow 1988 to 2010. She was also for many Metaethics in the 1950s was dominated by sphere of some virtue which we recognise. Keynote speaker Sir Anthony Kenny with Julie Jack (seated) Photo: Keiko Ikeuchi St Anne’s College years Griffin Professor of Philosophy at the expressivism, the view that moral judgements University of California, Los Angeles. are nothing more than expressions of certain

18 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 Oxford Philosophy Summer 2011 19 J. L. Austin

Paul Grice Iris Murdoch

Michael Dummett Elizabeth R. M. Hare Anscombe Gilbert Ryle Peter Strawson Bernard Williams

Oxford Philosophy

Isaiah www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk Berlin A. J. Ayer