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

moral philosopher 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, concerns ma ...

noted for her work on

virtue ethics Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, from Greek ἀρετή arete_(moral_virtue).html"_;"title="'arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''_is_an_approach_to_ethics_that_treats_the_concept_of_virtue.html" ;"title="arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''.html" ;" ...

. Hursthouse is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

Biography

Born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, in 1943, Hursthouse spent her childhood in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Her aunt Mary studied philosophy and when her father asked her what that was all about, he could not understand her answer. Rosalind, 17 at the time, knew immediately that she wanted to study philosophy, too, and enrolled the next year.

Work

She taught for many years at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

in England. She was head of the Department of Philosophy at the

from 2002 to 2005. Though she had written a substantial amount previously, Hursthouse entered the international philosophical scene for the first time in 1990–91, with three articles: Hursthouse, who was mentored by

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, ...

and Philippa Foot, is best known as a

virtue ethicist Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, from Greek ἀρετή arete_(moral_virtue).html"_;"title="'arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''_is_an_approach_to_ethics_that_treats_the_concept_of_virtue.html" ;"title="arete_(moral_virtue)">aretḗ''.html" ;" ...

. Hursthouse's work is deeply grounded in the history of philosophy, and especially in

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

's ethics, about which she has written extensively. She has also emphasised the practical nature of virtue ethics in her books ''Beginning Lives'' and ''Ethics, Humans, and Other Animals''. Her most substantial contribution to modern virtue ethics is her book ''On Virtue Ethics'', which explores its structure as a distinctive action-guiding theory, the relationship between virtue, the emotions and moral motivation, and the place of the virtues within an overall account of human flourishing. It also expands Hursthouse's formulation of right action in terms of what a virtuous person would characteristically do in a situation. In 2016, Hursthouse was elected as a

Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

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, Nov.1999/Feb.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 Moral philosophers 21st-century philosophers Aristotelian philosophers New Zealand women philosophers Living people Academics of the Open University University of Auckland faculty Analytic philosophers Virtue ethicists New Zealand philosophers 20th-century philosophers 1943 births Atkinson–Hursthouse–Richmond family Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand New Zealand writers 20th-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand women writers