Jonathan Peter Dancy (born 8 May 1946) is a British philosopher, who has written on

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

and

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and Research Professor at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. He taught previously for many years at the

University of Keele Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

Education and career

Dancy is the son of John Christopher Dancy. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, where he was

Head Boy Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing the school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in Aus ...

and played cricket for the school, and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

, where he obtained a double first in classics (1965–7: Classical Honour Moderations: First Class Honours; 1967–9: Literae Humaniores: First Class Honours, BA). After graduating he served as a lecturer at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named aft ...

for a year. In 1971 he became a lecturer at

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

, becoming professor there in 1991. After being mentioned by his daughter-in-law, American actress

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, '' Time'' named her one of the 100 most influenti ...

, during an appearance on ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the The Late Late Show (American talk show), ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing ...

'', Dancy appeared as a guest on the programme on 1 April 2010. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

in 2016.

Philosophical work

After having worked on problems of

, and more particularly on the nature of perception ( argument from illusion), he emerged as the leading proponent in ethics of

moral particularism Moral particularism is a theory in meta-ethics that runs counter to the idea that moral actions can be determined by applying universal moral principles. It states that there is no set of moral principles that can be applied to every situation, m ...

, the idea that all moral reasons are particular and context-sensitive, rather than general. He also defends what he calls the

holism Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED O ...

of reasons, namely the idea that a consideration that is a reason for acting in a certain way in one case may not be a reason for acting in that way, or even a reason for not acting in that way, in other cases. In this sense, reasons are context-dependent. Dancy argues that the holism of reasons provides a major support for the main claim of his particularism, i.e., that there are no moral ''principles'' but that ''morality'' can get on perfectly well without them. Dancy edited some of

George Berkeley George Berkeley (; 12 March 168514 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley ( Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immate ...

's writingsSilvia Parigi
Berkeley Bibliography (1979-2010)
and dedicated a book to the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

thinker.

Personal life

In 1973 he married Sarah Birley; they have three children: the actor Hugh Dancy; Jack Dancy, who runs a travel company; and Kate Redman, who works for UNESCO.

Selected publications

Articles

* "On Moral Properties", ''

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

'', 1981, XC, pp. 367–385. *“Ethical Particularism and Morally Relevant Properties.” ''

'', n.s.; 92, 368 (Oct., 1983): 530 – 547. *“The Role of Imaginary Cases in Ethics.” ''Pacific Philosophical Quarterly'', 66 (1985): 141 – 153. * “An Ethic of Prima Facie Duties.” In ''A Companion to Ethics'', ed. Peter Singer. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1991. 219 – 229. * “Can a Particularist Learn the Difference Between Right and Wrong?” In T''he Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy'', vol. 1, ed. K. Brinkmann. Bowling Green, OH: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1999. 59 – 72. * ::''See also'':
Pdf.
*“The Particularist’s Progress.” In ''Moral Particularism'', ed. Brad Hooker and Margaret Olivia Little. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. 130 – 156. *
Moral Particularism
in the Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Books (author)

* ''An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology'', Oxford: Blackwell, 1985. * ''Berkeley: An Introduction'', Oxford: Blackwell, 1987. * ''Moral Reasons'', Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1993. * ''Practical Reality'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. * ''Ethics Without Principles''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004. * ''Practical Shape. A Theory of Practical Reasoning'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Books (editor)

*''Perceptual Knowledge'', Oxford: OUP, 1988. *''Reading Parfit'', Oxford : Blackwell,1997. *''Normativity'' (''Ratio'' conference 1998) Oxford : Blackwell, 2000. *''Philosophy of Action: An Anthology'' (with

Constantine Sandis Constantine Sandis FRSA ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Σάνδης; born 1 October 1976) is a Greek and British philosopher and entrepreneur. Having worked on philosophy of action, moral psychology, David Hume, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, in ...

) Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

References

External links

* on the

Department of Philosophy website
"Moral Particularism"
– Dancy's article in the ''

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. E ...

''
Autobiographical interview with Dancy – ''What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?''
– an episode of the ''

Philosophy Bites ''Philosophy Bites'' is a podcast series featuring philosophers being interviewed for 15–20 minutes on a specific topic. The series, which has been running since 2007, is hosted by Nigel Warburton, freelance lecturer, and David Edmonds, and h ...

'' podcast {{DEFAULTSORT:Dancy, Jonathan Academics of the University of Reading Academics of Keele University Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University of Texas at Austin faculty Analytic philosophers English philosophers 20th-century British philosophers Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British philosophers Epistemologists Moral philosophers George Berkeley scholars 1946 births Living people People educated at Winchester College Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Fellows of the British Academy