Williams's Study Of Personal Integrity

Bernard Arthur Owen Williams is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20 th century,and his study covered many fields,in which the study of ethics was the most important.However,his thoughts have been little understood so far.Someone hold the idea that he is a representative of anti-theory,and just as they say he had spilled a lot of ink over normative ethics which is embodied by Kant′s ethical theory and utilitarianism.He thought Kant′s ethical theory and utilitarianism had made individuals excessively abstract,which destroyed one′s own integrity.Williams established his own theories while he criticized them.Although his thoughts has not been formed a clear and unitary system,these thoughts were around a central idea that is defending the integrity of individual.This article talked about the Williams′thoughts of individual integrity according to a clue which is 〃what it is—how to do—questions remained〃.At first,we traced the origin of the individual integrity,which is not only from his criticism to normative ethics,but also from what he absorbed in ancient Greek literature and philosophy,especially his answer to Socrates′question that how one should live,which is the core of individual integrity thoughts.According to these origins,we had an outline of Williams′notion of integrity: one should establish his own projects with his a set of desires,which constitute a exclusive character.After that,Williams elaborated his thoughts about individual integrity from three aspects mainly.The first point is how to defend the integrity of individual character.The second point is about reasons of individual behaviors.The final point is the defense of individual behaviors.Williams′ethical theories are a huge subversion to traditional normative ethics,so it will attract much incredulity and face difficulties inevitably.Hence,we will talk about what domestic and foreign thinkers make comments on integrity and how Williams reply them at the end of the article.The comprehensive expounding of Williams′individual integrity theory will not only help us to understand his overall theories,but also correct the bias against Williams in the existing researches.Briefly,Williams′individual integrity theory show the problems of Kant′s ethical Kant′s ethical theory and utilitarianism sharply,which provide the later philosophers with proofs to criticize the modern morality system,and we get a new perspective to the ethics of consciousness.He was not an advocate of moral nihilism and a supporter to vulgar moral relativism.His theories laid a more real foundation of ethics.At the same time,he limited the scope of philosophy.But we still can′t conclude whether the individual integrity theory inject fresh blood into modern ethics or inject a toxin.