Bernard Williams

Williams argued that utilitarianism can alienate people from their own projects, commitments, and integrity. His critique appears strongly in Utilitarianism: For and Against, published with J. J. C. Smart in 1973.

Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, published in 1985, questions whether moral philosophy can deliver the kind of systematic theory many philosophers wanted. Williams argues that ethical life is historically situated and cannot be reduced to a single abstract rule.

Moral luck refers to cases where factors outside a person's control affect how we morally judge them. Williams helped make the issue central in modern ethics, alongside Thomas Nagel's essay on the same topic.

Williams often used Greek tragedy and ancient philosophy to challenge modern moral assumptions. Shame and Necessity, published in 1993, argues that Greek ethical thought is more sophisticated than many modern philosophers had claimed.