R. M. Hare

R. M. Hare FBA
Hare in 1957
Born	Richard Mervyn Hare (1919-03-21)21 March 1919 Backwell,England
Died	29 January 2002(2002-01-29)(aged 82) Ewelme,England
Spouse	Catherine Verney ​ (m.1947)​
Children	John E. Hareet al.
Academic background
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Thesis	Books: "The Language of Morals"(1952)
Doctoral advisor	Gilbert Ryle
Other advisors	Gilbert Ryle,H.H. Price
Influences	J. L. Austin A. J. Ayer Immanuel Kant Gilbert Ryle Henry Sidgwick Ludwig Wittgenstein
Academic work
Discipline	Philosophy
Sub-discipline	Moral philosophy political philosophy
School or tradition	Analytic philosophy
Institutions	Balliol College, Oxford Corpus Christi College, Oxford University of Florida
Doctoral students	Denys Turner
Notable students	John Lucas Brian McGuinness Peter Singer Bernard Williams
Main interests	Applied ethics meta-ethics
Notable ideas	Moral particularism preference utilitarianism two-level utilitarianism universal prescriptivism
Influenced	Allan Gibbard John E. Hare Brian McGuinness Derek Parfit Aaron Sloman Gary Varner Bernard Williams

Richard Mervyn HareFBA(21 March 1919 – 29 January 2002), usually cited asR. M. Hare,was a Britishmoral philosopherwho held the post ofWhite's Professor of Moral Philosophyat theUniversity of Oxfordfrom 1966 until 1983. He subsequently taught for a number of years at theUniversity of Florida.Hismeta-ethicaltheories were influential during the second half of the twentieth century.

Hare is best known for his development ofprescriptivismas a meta-ethical theory, which he argues is supported by analysis of formal features of moral discourse, and for his defence ofpreference utilitarianismbased on his prescriptivism.

Some of Hare's students, such asBrian McGuinness,John Lucas,andBernard Williamswent on to become well-known philosophers.Hare's son,John E. Hare,also became a philosopher.Peter Singer,known for his involvement with theanimal liberation movement(who studied Hare's work as anhonours studentat theUniversity of Melbourneand came to know Hare personally while he was anOxford BPhilgraduate student),has explicitly adopted some elements of Hare's thought, though not his doctrine of universal prescriptivism.

Life and career

Richard Hare was born on 21 March 1919 inBackwell,Somerset. He attendedRugby Schoolin Warwickshire, followed in 1937 byBalliol College, Oxford,where he readgreats(classics). Having joined the officer training corps whist still at Rugby, on the outbreak of World War II, he volunteered to serve with theRoyal Artillery.

Hare was taken as aprisoner of warby the Japanese from thefall of Singaporein 1942 to the end of theSecond World War.Hare's wartime experience had a lasting impact on his philosophical views, particularly his view that moral philosophy has an obligation to help people live their lives as moral beings. His earliest work in philosophy, which has never been published, dates from this period, and in it,he tried to develop a system that might "serve as a guide to life in the harshest conditions", according toC. C. W. Taylor.

He returned to Oxford after the war, and in 1947, married Catherine Verney, a marriage that produced a son and three daughters. (Hare's son,John E. Hare,is also a philosopher.) He was elected fellow and tutor in philosophy at Balliol from 1947 to 1966; honorary fellow at Balliol from 1974 to 2002; and was appointed Wilde Lecturer in Natural Religion, 1963–66; and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, 1966–1983, which accompanied a move toCorpus Christi.He was president of theAristotelian Societyfrom 1972 to 1973. He left Oxford in 1983 to become Graduate Research Professor of Philosophy at theUniversity of Floridaat Gainesville, a post he held until 1994.

After suffering a series ofstrokes,R. M. Hare died inEwelme,Oxfordshire, on 29 January 2002.

At his memorial service held atSt Mary's Church, Oxford,in May of that year,Peter Singerdelivered (as he felt Hare would have wished) a lecture on Hare's "Achievements in Moral Philosophy" which concluded by giving three "major, lasting" ones, namely, "restoring reason to moral argument, distinguishing intuitive and critical levels of moral thinking, and pioneering the development of... applied ethics".

Influences

Hare was greatly influenced by theemotivismofA. J. AyerandCharles L. Stevenson,theordinary language philosophyofJ. L. Austin,a certain reading of the later philosophy ofLudwig Wittgenstein,utilitarianism,andImmanuel Kant.

Hare held that ethical rules should not be based on a principle of utility, though he took into account utilitarian considerations. His hybrid approach to meta-ethics distinguishes him from classical utilitarians likeJeremy Bentham.His bookSorting Out Ethicsmight be interpreted as saying that Hare is as much a Kantian as he is a utilitarian, but other sourcesdisagree with this assessment. Although Hare used many concepts from Kant, especially the idea ofuniversalisability,he was still aconsequentialist,rather than adeontologist,in his normative ethical views. Hare himself addressed the possibility that Kant was a utilitarian like himself, in his "Could Kant Have Been a Utilitarian?"

Universal prescriptivism

In a series of books, especiallyThe Language of Morals(1952),Freedom and Reason(1963), andMoral Thinking(1981), Hare gave shape to a theory that he calleduniversal prescriptivism.According to this, moral terms such as 'good', 'ought' and 'right' have two logical or semantic properties:universalizabilityandprescriptivity.By the former, he meant that moral judgments must identify the situation they describe according to a finite set of universal terms, excludingproper names,but notdefinite descriptions.By the latter, he meant that moral agents must perform those acts they consider themselves to have an obligation to perform whenever they are physically and psychologically able to do so. In other words, he argued that it made no sense for someone to say, sincerely: "I ought to do X", and then fail to do X. This was identified by Frankena, Nobis and others as a major flaw in Hare's system, as it appeared to take no account ofakrasia,or weakness of the will.

Hare argued that the combination of universalizability and prescriptivity leads to a certain form ofconsequentialism,namely,preference utilitarianism.In brief, this means that we should act in such a way as to maximise the satisfaction of people's preferences.

Importance of specificity

Hare departs from Kant's view that only the most general maxims of conduct be used (for example, "do not steal" ), but the consequences ignored, when applying thecategorical imperative.To ignore consequences leads to absurdity: for example, that it would be wrong to steal a terrorist's plans to blow up a nuclear facility. All the specific facts of a circumstance must be considered, and these include probable consequences. They also include the relevant, universal properties of the facts: for example, the psychological states of those involved.

Applied ethics and political philosophy

While Hare was primarily interested in meta-ethics, he also made some important contributions to the fields of political philosophy and applied ethics. Among his essays within these fields those on the morality of slavery, abortionand theGolden Rule,and on demi-vegetarianism have received the most attention. Hare's most important work in political philosophy and applied ethics is collected in the two volumesEssays on Political Morality(1989) andEssays on Bioethics(1993), both published by Oxford University Press.

Select works

• Hare, R. M. (1952).The Language of Morals.Oxford: Clarendon Press.OCLC1034413.
• Hare, R. M. (1972).Essays on Philosophical Method.Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press.ISBN9780520323346.
• Hare, R. M. (1977).Freedom and Reason.Oxford: Clarendon Press.ISBN9780198810926.
• Hare, R. M. (1981).Moral Thinking: its levels, method, and point.Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198246602.
• Hare, R. M. (1982). "Ethical theory and Utilitarianism". InSen, Amartya;Williams, Bernard(eds.).Utilitarianism and beyond.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 22–38.ISBN9780511611964.
• Hare, R. M. (1983).Plato.Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press.ISBN9780192875853.
• Hare, R. M. (1989).Essays in Ethical Theory.Oxford England New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198240716.
• Hare, R. M. (1989).Essays on Political Morality.Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198249955.
• Hare, R. M. (1992).Essays on Religion and Education.Oxford, New York:Clarendon PressOxford University Press.ISBN9780198249962.
• Hare, R. M. (1993).Essays on Bioethics.Clarendon Press.ISBN9780198236788.

*For a more complete list of publications see the annotated bibliography by Keith Burgess-Jackson.

See also

• Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
• Tanner Lectures on Human Values

Further reading

• Price, A. W.(2004)."Hare, Richard Mervyn"(PDF).Proceedings of the British Academy.124:117–37.
• Price, A. W."Hare, Richard Mervyn (1919–2002)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76706.

External links

• Anthony Price."Richard Mervyn Hare".InZalta, Edward N.(ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• R. M. Hare– resources page containing Hare's writings, secondary literature, reviews, obituaries and a bibliography [Archived byWayback Machine]
• R. M. Hare in Conversation (on his 80th birthday)[Archived by Wayback Machine]
• R. M. Hare.(in Italian)[Archived by Wayback Machine]