Rosalind Hursthouse (born 10 November 1943) is a British-born New Zealand

moral philosopher Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics ...

noted for her work on

virtue ethics Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, from Greek []) is a philosophical approach that treats virtue and moral character, character as the primary subjects of ethics, in contrast to other ethical systems that put consequences of voluntary acts, pri ...

. She is one of the leading exponents of contemporary virtue ethics, though she has also written extensively on philosophy of action,

history of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, religious traditions, and proverbial lor ...

moral psychology Moral psychology is the study of human thought and behavior in ethical contexts. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. This field of study is interdisciplinary between th ...

, and biomedical ethics. Hursthouse is

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of Philosophy at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

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." According to

Simon Blackburn Simon Walter Blackburn (born 12 July 1944) is an English philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language. More recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts ...

, "With this book virtue ethics finally comes of age... This volume will effortlessly take its place as the defining exposition of the view." Hursthouse has also made significant contributions to current debates on moral status, ethical dilemmas, moral emotions,

ethical naturalism Ethical naturalism (also called moral naturalism or naturalistic cognitivistic definism) is the meta-ethical view that holds that moral properties and facts are reducible to natural properties and can be studied through empirical or scientific me ...

human nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...

, and practical wisdom. Hursthouse was a student of

Elizabeth Anscombe Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophi ...

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 A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue th ...

to Anscombe's 1958 article "

Modern Moral Philosophy "Modern Moral Philosophy" is an article on moral philosophy by G. E. M. Anscombe, originally published in the journal ''Philosophy'', vol. 33, no. 124 (January 1958). The article has influenced the emergence of contemporary virtue ethics, especi ...

" as well as Foot's manuscript on

, which has since been published as ''Natural Goodness'' (2001).

Early life and education

Rosalind Hursthouse (née Mary Rosalind) was born in Bristol, England on 10 November 1943 to William (Bill) Weldon Oliver Hursthouse (10 July 1914 – 19 April 2017) and Jessie (Jay) Hursthouse (née Jessie E. Simmonds) (19 May 1914 – 26 October 1987), but she and her younger brother, William, grew up in

Wellington, New Zealand Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

. 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 Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

in the 1600s. As a 17-year-old, Hursthouse was inspired to study

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

by her aunt, Mary Fearon Hursthouse, after an argument at the dinner table. She enrolled the next year at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

and then transferred to the

, where she earned her BA (1964) and MA (1965) in Philosophy and was subsequently appointed as Junior Lecturer in Philosophy. In 1966, Hursthouse (as Rosalind Mary Hursthouse) went up to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

to read for the BPhil (1968) on a postgraduate scholarship, going on to read for the DPhil (1974) at

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

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. While at Somerville, Hursthouse was mentored by

and Philippa Foot, both of whom would become for her lifelong friends and sources of philosophical inspiration.

Career

After teaching at the

and Corpus Christi College, Hursthouse joined the ranks of the founding faculty of the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

to work with disadvantaged students and adult learners who had little to no background in philosophy. In 1975, she was appointed as lecturer at the

, where she remained for the next 25 years, eventually as Senior Lecturer and as Head of Department (1991–1997). By 1991, Hursthouse had "burst upon the international philosophical scene for the first time" with the following three articles: 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 neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics provides action guidance and illuminates ethical dilemmas. In the second section, Hursthouse offers the first virtue-based account of acting "from a sense of

duty A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; , past participle of ; , whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may arise from a system of ethics or morality, e ...

," bringing out the significance of moral emotions. In the third and final section, she considers the question, "Which character traits are the virtues?" This is the most controversial and widely discussed part of her book. Hursthouse's answer is that the virtues are the character traits which tend to not only benefit their possessor but also, relatedly, make their possessor a good human being — based, in part, on quasi-scientific "ethical but non‐evaluative beliefs about

and how human life goes" ("

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's Requirement on the Virtues"). 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." Despite this, she is an atheist. Since writing ''On Virtue Ethics'', Hursthouse has held visiting positions at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, the

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

(Mills Distinguished Visiting professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and Civil Polity). In 2002, Hursthouse accepted an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the

(serving as Head of department until 2005) in order to return home to New Zealand and be with her aging father. In 2016, she was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and retired from her academic career at the

, where she is now

of Philosophy.

Bibliography

*'The Central Doctrine of the Mean' i
''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 t
OUP site
*'Virtue and Human Nature' in ''Hume Studies'' double issue, November 1999/February 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

External links

*
University of Auckland, Profile of Rosalind HursthouseHursthouse's entry in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on virtue ethics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hursthouse, Rosalind 21st-century New Zealand philosophers Aristotelian philosophers New Zealand women philosophers Living people Academics of the Open University Academic staff of the University of Auckland Analytic philosophers Virtue ethicists 20th-century New Zealand philosophers 1943 births Atkinson–Hursthouse–Richmond family Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand women writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford