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Rosalind Hursthouse

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Rosalind Hursthouse
Born
Mary Rosalind Hursthouse

(1943-11-10) 10 November 1943 (age 80)
Bristol, England
NationalityNew Zealand
EducationVictoria University of Wellington
University of Auckland, BA, MA
University of Oxford, BPhil, DPhil
Notable workOn Virtue Ethics
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy, Virtue ethics, neo-Aristotelianism
Institutions
Main interests
Applied Ethics, Normative Ethics, Ancient Philosophy, Action theory,
Notable ideas
Neo-Aristotelianism
V-Rules
Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics
Plato's Requirement on the Virtues
Neo-Aristotelian Ethical Naturalism
Neo-Aristotelian Enlightened Self-Interest
RelativesRichmond Hursthouse (great-grandfather)

Rosalind Hursthouse FRSNZ (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics. She is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Auckland and Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Biography

Rosalind Hursthouse (née Mary Rosalind) was born in Bristol, England on 10 November 1943 to William Weldon Oliver Hursthouse (10 July 1914 – 19 April 2017)[1] and Jay,[2][3] but she and her younger brother, William, grew up in Wellington, New Zealand.[4] She is a member of the notable Atkinson–Hursthouse–Richmond family of New Zealand and a descendant of the Hursthouse family of England, which traces back to the first John Hursthouse who immigrated from Holland in the 1600s.[5]

As a 17-year-old, Hursthouse was inspired to study philosophy by her Aunt Mary after an argument at the dinner table.[4] She enrolled the next year at Victoria University of Wellington and then transferred to the University of Auckland, where she earned her BA (1964) and MA (1965) in Philosophy and was subsequently appointed as Junior Lecturer in Philosophy.[6][7]

In 1966, Hursthouse went up to the University of Oxford to read for the BPhil (1968) on a postgraduate scholarship,[6] going on to read for the DPhil (1974) at Somerville College while working as Stipendiary Lecturer in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, making her the first woman to teach at an all men’s college in Oxford.[8][9][10]

While at Somerville, Hursthouse was mentored by Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, both of whom would become for her lifelong friends and sources of philosophical inspiration.[11]

Career

After teaching at the University of Auckland and Corpus Christi College, Hursthouse joined the ranks of the founding faculty of the Open University in hopes of working with disadvantaged students who had little to no background in philosophy.[12] In 1975, she was appointed as Lecturer at the Open University, where she remained for the next 25 years, later as Senior Lecturer and also as Head of Department (1991–1997).[6]

Hursthouse is best known as a virtue ethicist. Her work is deeply grounded in the history of philosophy, and especially in Aristotle's Ethics. Though she had already written extensively on these topics, Hursthouse first entered the international philosophical scene between 1990 and 1991 with the following three articles:

  1. "Arational Actions", which made a break with the view that the explanation of action by reference to reasons (an "intention") is also a species of event-causal explanation in the sense familiar from the work of Donald Davidson. By showing that some bona fide intentional actions are explained arationally, Hursthouse argues, by counterexample, that Davidson's account of reasons as causes of action is mistaken. Hursthouse turns her philosophical attention, and ours, to the kinds of reasons asked for and given by human beings in the explanation of human behaviour: the behaviour of emotional, rational, social, political, linguistic, lawful animals.
  2. "Virtue Theory and Abortion", in which Hursthouse outlined the structure of a new version of Aristotelian virtue ethics, defended it against possible objections and applied it to the issue of abortion. She argues that whereas most discussions of abortion focus on the issue of who has rights to make decisions regarding the foetus, a decision made within one's rights could still be callous or cowardly, meaning that it would be ethically problematic and potentially devastating for the person making it, whatever the status of the foetus and the reproductive rights of women.[13] The paper, which combines theory and application, was an early exemplar of Hursthouse's distinctive approach to philosophical ethics. Hursthouse demonstrates the emphasis in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics on the lives of situated human agents (including the consequences of their actions), and the salient capabilities, character traits, and reasons involved in truly acting well, or as well as possible, within whatever situation an agent may find herself.
  3. "After Hume's Justice", which offered a neo-Aristotelian account of social justice that was deeply influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Hursthouse argues that a modern political philosophy that prioritises the good —- virtue and human flourishing —- over the right, and takes ethics to be prior to, and continuous with, politics, can nevertheless accommodate individual human rights.[14]

Hursthouse has emphasised the practical nature of virtue ethics in her books Beginning Lives and Ethics, Humans, and Other Animals. Her most substantial contribution to modern virtue ethics is her book On Virtue Ethics, which explores its structure as a distinctive action-guiding theory, the relationship between virtue, the emotions and moral motivation, and the place of the virtues within an overall account of human flourishing. It also expands Hursthouse's formulation of right action in terms of what a virtuous person would characteristically do in a situation.

Following the significant impact of her On Virtue Ethics, Hursthouse has held visiting positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Diego, the University of Auckland, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley (Mills Distinguished Visiting Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and Civil Polity).[6]

In 2002, Hursthouse accepted an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, serving as Head of Department until 2005, in order to return home to New Zealand and be with her aging father.[6][10] As of 2016, she was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand[12][15] and has retired from her academic career at the University of Auckland, where she is now Professor Emerita of Philosophy.[16]

Bibliography

  • 'The Central Doctrine of the Mean' in The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Richard Kraut, Blackwell, 2006, pp. 96–115.
  • 'Are Virtues the Proper Starting Point for Ethical Theory?' in Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory, ed. James Dreier, Blackwell, 2006, pp. 99–112.
  • ‘Virtue Ethics’ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online, 2003
  • 'Virtue Ethics vs Rule-Consequentialism: A Reply to Brad Hooker', Utilitas Vol 14, March 2002 pp 41–53.
  • Ethics, Humans and Other Animals, Routledge, 2000 (written as a part of an Open University course).
  • On Virtue Ethics, Oxford University Press, 1999. For the author's account of how this book came to be written, go to OUP site
  • 'Virtue and Human Nature' in Hume Studies double issue, Nov.1999/Feb.2000.
  • 'Intention' in Logic, Cause and Action, ed. Roger Teichmann, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  • 'Virtue Ethics and the Emotions' in Virtue Ethics, ed. Daniel Statman, Edinburgh University Press, 1997.
  • 'Hume's Moral and Political Philosophy' in History of Philosophy, Vol. 5, British Philosophy and the Enlightenment, ed. Stuart Brown, Routledge, 1996.
  • 'The Virtuous Agent's Reasons: a reply to Bernard Williams' in the Proceedings of the Keeling Colloquium on Aristotle on Moral Realism, ed. Robert Heinaman, UCL Press, 1995.
  • 'Normative Virtue Ethics' in How Should One Live? ed. Roger Crisp, OUP, 1995.
  • 'Applying Virtue Ethics' in Virtues and Reasons, Festschrift for Philippa Foot, eds. Rosalind Hursthouse, Gavin Lawrence, Warren Quinn, OUP, 1995.
  • 'Arational Actions' in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. LXXXVIII 1991.
  • 'Virtue Theory and Abortion' in Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 20, 1990–91.
  • 'After Hume's Justice' in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. XCL, 1990/91.

References

  1. ^ "William HURSTHOUSE Obituary (2017) - The New Zealand Herald". Legacy.com. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Mary R Hursthouse - Ancestry.com". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  3. ^ "England & Wales, birth index, 1916–2005". Ancestry.com Operations. 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b Cheng, Derek (5 January 2006). "The X-pert Files: Rosalind Hursthouse". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Hursthouse Family". winsomegriffin.com. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e Annas Julia, Reid Jeremy (2022). Virtue and Action: Selected Papers. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0192895844.
  7. ^ Slote, Michael (2010). "Hursthouse, Rosalind". In Graham, Oppy; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.). A Companion to Philosophy in Australia & New Zealand (Web ed.). Monash University Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9806512-1-8. Retrieved 18 September 2011. Hursthouse is best known as a virtue ethicist, and most of her work, both theoretical and applied, has exemplified that approach.
  8. ^ Patrick, Harriet (December 2019). "A Brief History of Women's Arrival at Corpus" (PDF). The Pelican Record. LV: 19–24.
  9. ^ Harrison, Brian (December 2018). "The Secret History of Corpus SCR" (PDF). The Pelican Record. LIV: 39–56.
  10. ^ a b Team, Flagstaff (5 September 2018). "Interview: philosopher Rosalind Hursthouse". The Devonport Flagstaff. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  11. ^ Lipscomb, Benjamin J.B. (2022). The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics. Oxford University Press. pp. 171–199. ISBN 978-0197541074.
  12. ^ a b "2016 Professor Rosalind Hursthouse FRSNZ". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  13. ^ Daniel Russell (2010). Oppy, Graham; Trakakis, N. N. (eds.). A Companion to Philosophy in Australia & New Zealand. Clayton, Australia: Monash University Publishing. p. 575. ISBN 978-0-9806512-0-1.
  14. ^ Michael Slote (2010). Oppy, Graham; Trakakis, N. N. (eds.). A Companion to Philosophy in Australia & New Zealand. Clayton, Australia: Monash University Publishing. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-0-9806512-0-1.
  15. ^ "List of all Fellows with surnames G–I". Royal Society of New Zealand. 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  16. ^ "About Rosalind Hursthouse". profiles.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
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