{"title":"Books by Bernard Williams","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780415610148","title":"Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003eBernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Drawing on the ideas of the Greek philosophers, Williams reorients ethics away from a preoccupation with universal moral theories towards 'truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life'. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289017069941,"sku":"9780415610148","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780415610148_1dee135a-c5a8-4d5a-a027-781f12b5ca13.jpg?v=1786013374"},{"product_id":"9780691271767","title":"Truth and Truthfulness – An Essay in Genealogy","description":"What does it mean to be truthful? What role does truth play in our lives? What do we lose if we reject truthfulness? No philosopher is better suited to answer these questions than Bernard Williams. Writing with his characteristic combination of passion and elegant simplicity, he explores the value of truth and finds it to be both less and more than we might imagine.   Modern culture exhibits two attitudes toward truth: suspicion of being deceived (no one wants to be fooled) and skepticism that objective truth exists at all (no one wants to be naive). This tension between a demand for truthfulness and the doubt that there is any truth to be found is not an abstract paradox. It has political consequences and signals a danger that our intellectual activities, particularly in the humanities, may tear themselves to pieces.   Williams's approach, in the tradition of Nietzsche's genealogy, blends philosophy, history, and a fictional account of how the human concern with truth might have arisen. Without denying that we should worry about the contingency of much that we take for granted, he defends truth as an intellectual objective and a cultural value. He identifies two basic virtues of truth, Accuracy and Sincerity, the first of which aims at finding out the truth and the second at telling it. He describes different psychological and social forms that these virtues have taken and asks what ideas can make best sense of them today.   Truth and Truthfulness presents a powerful challenge to the fashionable belief that truth has no value, but equally to the traditional faith that its value guarantees itself. Bernard Williams shows us that when we lose a sense of the value of truth, we lose a lot both politically and personally, and may well lose everything.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294545752437,"sku":"9780691271767","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691271767_368d1cd0-8448-470b-b9d5-b6aecab4cc7c.jpg?v=1786014606"},{"product_id":"9781138019188","title":"Descartes","description":"\u003cp\u003eDescartes has often been called the 'father of modern philosophy'. His attempts to find foundations for knowledge, and to reconcile the existence of the soul with the emerging science of his time, are among the most influential and widely studied in the history of philosophy. This is a classic and challenging introduction to Descartes by one of the most distinguished modern philosophers. Bernard Williams not only analyzes Descartes' project of founding knowledge on certainty, but uncovers the philosophical motives for his search. With acute insight, he demonstrates how Descartes' \u003cem\u003eMeditations \u003c\/em\u003eare not merely a description but the very enactment of philosophical thought and discovery. Williams covers all of the key areas of Descartes' thought, including God, the will, the possibility of knowledge, and the mind and its place in nature. He also makes profound contributions to the theory of knowledge, metaphysics and philosophy generally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a new foreword by John Cottingham.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296614429045,"sku":"9781138019188","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781138019188_7a66b444-ca10-4f8c-aa89-711733fe64a4.jpg?v=1786018129"},{"product_id":"9781107604766","title":"Morality","description":"In Morality Bernard Williams confronts the problems of writing moral philosophy and offers a stimulating alternative to more systematic accounts which seem nevertheless to have left all the important issues somewhere off the page. Williams explains, analyses and distinguishes a number of key positions, from the purely amoral to notions of subjective or relative morality, testing their coherence before going on to explore the nature of 'goodness' in relation to responsibilities and choice, roles, standards and human nature. A classic in moral philosophy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312126701941,"sku":"9781107604766","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781107604766_219d0035-e1b8-427a-a386-c7f8bb77ee12.jpg?v=1786018196"},{"product_id":"on-opera","title":"On Opera","description":"In his last work, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century explores the pleasures of opera Bernard Williams, who died in 2003, was one of the most influential moral philosophers of his generation. A lifelong opera lover, his articles and essays, talks for the BBC, contributions to the Grove Dictionary of Opera, and program notes for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the English National Opera, generated a devoted following.  This elegant volume brings together these widely scattered and largely unobtainable pieces, including two that have not been previously published. It covers an engaging range of topics from Mozart to Wagner, including sparkling essays on specific operas by those composers as well as Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, Debussy, Janacek, and Tippett. Reflecting Williams’s brilliance, passion, and clarity of mind, these essays engage with, and illustrate, the enduring appeal of opera as an art form.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466639155573,"sku":"9780300223040","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780300223040.jpg?v=1785654697"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-bernard-williams.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}