Rosalind Hursthouse

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Rosalind Hursthouse

Neo-Aristotelianism, V-Rules, Plato
's Requirement on the Virtues
RelativesRichmond Hursthouse (great-grandfather)
Charles Wilson Hursthouse (great-granduncle)
Charles Flinders Hursthouse (great-great-granduncle)

Rosalind Hursthouse

Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand
.

Hursthouse's book On Virtue Ethics (1999) is a key development of the contemporary revival of virtue theory ("

practical wisdom
.

Hursthouse was a student of

Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, from whom she draws inspiration for much of her work in virtue ethics. Indeed, many consider On Virtue Ethics to be the spiritual successor to Anscombe's 1958 article "Modern Moral Philosophy" as well as Foot's manuscript on ethical naturalism, which has since been published as Natural Goodness (2001).[2]

Biography

Rosalind Hursthouse (née Mary Rosalind) was born in

Wellington, New Zealand.[3][4][5] 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.[6]

As a 17-year-old, Hursthouse was inspired to study philosophy by her aunt, Mary Fearon Hursthouse, after an argument at the dinner table.[7] 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.[8]

In 1966, Hursthouse (as Rosalind Mary Hursthouse) went up to 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.[9][10][11]

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.[12]

Career

After teaching at the University of Auckland and Corpus Christi College, Hursthouse joined the ranks of the founding faculty of the Open University to work with disadvantaged students and adult learners who had little to no background in philosophy.[13] In 1975, she was appointed as lecturer at the Open University, where she remained for the next 25 years, eventually as Senior Lecturer and as Head of Department (1991–1997).[8]

By 1991, Hursthouse had "burst upon the international philosophical scene for the first time" with the following three articles:[14]

  1. "Arational Actions", which made a break with the view that the explanation of
    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.[15] 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.[16]

While Hursthouse has applied virtue ethics to practical issues in Beginning Lives and Ethics, Humans, and Other Animals, her most important contribution to philosophy is On Virtue Ethics. In the first section, she shows how

quasi-scientific "ethical but non‐evaluative beliefs about human nature and how human life goes" ("Plato's Requirement on the Virtues").[1]

At the end of her book, Hursthouse says, "Atheists may find it hard to recognise the point nowadays, but believing that human nature is harmonious is part of the virtue of hope. Something at least very like it used to be called belief in (God's) Providence; to believe in Providence was part of the virtue of hope; to doubt it is to fall prey to the vice of despair. And that seems to me to be right."[1] Despite this, she is an atheist.[17]

Since writing On Virtue Ethics, Hursthouse has held visiting positions at the

Professor Emerita of Philosophy.[19]

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. ^ .
  2. . One of most pleasing results of the turn to virtue ethics has been that the insights of thinkers like Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, which had been around but not really taken in, have now been seriously taken up and developed. In fact, virtue ethics has in many ways gone beyond them, especially since the transforming work of Rosalind Hursthouse's book On Virtue Ethics.
  3. ^ "Mary R Hursthouse - Ancestry.com". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  4. ^ "Jessie Hursthouse - Ancestry.com". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  5. ^ "William HURSTHOUSE Obituary (2017) - The New Zealand Herald". Legacy.com. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Hursthouse Family". winsomegriffin.com. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  7. ^ Cheng, Derek (5 January 2006). "The X-pert Files: Rosalind Hursthouse". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  8. ^ .
  9. ^ Patrick, Harriet (December 2019). "A Brief History of Women's Arrival at Corpus" (PDF). The Pelican Record. LV: 19–24.
  10. ^ Harrison, Brian (December 2018). "The Secret History of Corpus SCR" (PDF). The Pelican Record. LIV: 39–56.
  11. ^ a b Team, Flagstaff (5 September 2018). "Interview: philosopher Rosalind Hursthouse". The Devonport Flagstaff. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  12. .
  13. ^ a b "2016 Professor Rosalind Hursthouse FRSNZ". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  14. ^ . 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.
  15. .
  16. .
  17. ^ "Profile for Rosalind Hursthouse - PhilPapers". philpapers.org. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  18. ^ "List of all Fellows with surnames G–I". Royal Society of New Zealand. 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  19. ^ "About Rosalind Hursthouse". profiles.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 30 August 2023.

External links