Rosalind Hursthouse | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Mary Rosalind Hursthouse 10 November 1943 |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | Victoria University of Wellington University of Auckland, BA, MA Somerville College, Oxford, BPhil, DPhil |
| Notable work | On Virtue Ethics |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy, virtue ethics, Aristotelianism |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Action, Emotion and Motive |
Main interests | Applied ethics, normative ethics, ancient philosophy, action theory |
Notable ideas | Neo-Aristotelianism, v-rules, Plato's requirement on the virtues |
| Relatives | Richmond Hursthouse (great-grandfather) Charles Wilson Hursthouse (great-granduncle) Charles Flinders Hursthouse (great-great-granduncle) |
Rosalind Hursthouse FRSNZ (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand moral philosopher noted for her work on virtue ethics. She is one of the leading exponents of contemporary virtue ethics, though she has also written extensively on philosophy of action, history of philosophy, moral psychology, and biomedical ethics. Hursthouse is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Auckland and Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Hursthouse's book On Virtue Ethics (1999) has been a seminal contribution to the contemporary revival of virtue theory ("aretaic turn") and is often cited as the definitive exposition of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics, which links morally right action, virtuous character, and human flourishing. Her book has been described by Roger Crisp as "the comprehensive statement modern virtue ethics has been awaiting for forty years."[1] According to Simon Blackburn, "With this book virtue ethics finally comes of age... This volume will effortlessly take its place as the defining exposition of the view."[1] Hursthouse has also made significant contributions to current debates on moral status, ethical dilemmas, moral emotions, ethical naturalism, human nature, and 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]
- ^ a b Hursthouse, Rosalind (2001). On Virtue Ethics (Paperback ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199247998.
- ^ Annas, Julia (2012). "The Philosopher's Path". Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. 86 (2): 77–91. ISSN 0065-972X. JSTOR 43661299.
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.