Onora Sylvia O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve (born 23 August 1941) is a British philosopher and a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

Early life and education

Onora Sylvia O'Neill was born on 23 August 1941 in

Aughafatten Aughafatten or Aghafatten () is a small village and townland between Carnlough and Broughshane in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is in Mid and East Antrim District Council and part of the North Antrim constituency for local and European el ...

. The daughter of Sir Con O'Neill, she was educated partly in Germany and at St Paul's Girls' School, London, before studying philosophy, psychology and physiology at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. She went on to complete a doctorate at Harvard University, with John Rawls as supervisor.

Career

During the 1970s, she taught at Barnard College, the women's college in Columbia University, New York City. In 1977, she returned to Britain and took up a post at the University of Essex; she was Professor of Philosophy there when she became Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge in 1992. She is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, a former President of the British Academy (2005–2009) and chaired the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

(1998–2010). From 2004 to 2006, she was President of the British Philosophical Association. In 2013, she held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Until October 2006, she was the Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and she was chair of the

Equality and Human Rights Commission The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body in Great Britain, established by the Equality Act 2006 with effect from 1 October 2007. The Commission has responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of eq ...

until April 2016. O'Neill's work has earned her numerous honours and awards, including the million-dollar

Berggruen Prize The Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture is a US$1-million award given each year to a significant individual in the field of philosophy. It is awarded by the Berggruen Institute to "thinkers whose ideas have helped us find direction, wisdo ...

Philosophy

O'Neill has written widely on political philosophy and ethics, international justice, bioethics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Across various works, O'Neill has defended and applied a constructivist interpretation of Kantian ethics heavily influenced by, and yet critical of, the work of John Rawls, emphasising the importance of trust, consent and respect for autonomy in a just society. She has written extensively about trust, noting "that people often choose to rely on the very people whom they claimed not to trust" and suggesting that we "need to free professionals and the public service to serve the public...to work towards more intelligent forms of accountability... ndto rethink a media culture in which spreading suspicion has become a routine activity".

Honours and distinctions

O'Neill has been President of the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

(1988 to 1989), a member of the

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(1990 to 1994), chair of Nuffield Council on Bioethics (1996 to 1998), a member and then acting chair of the

Human Genetics Advisory Commission The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) was an advisory non-departmental public body that advised the UK government on the ethical and social aspects of genetics. This included genetic testing, cloning and other aspects of molecular medicine. The Comm ...

(1996 to 1999) and a member of the select committee on

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Review. She is presently chair of the

(since 1997), a trustee of Sense About Science (since 2002), a trustee of the Ditchley Foundation, and a trustee of the Gates Cambridge Trust. She also served as President of the British Academy between 2005 and 2009. She is on the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health, the NGO formed to develop the

Health Impact Fund The Health Impact Fund is a proposed pay-for-performance mechanism that would provide a market-based solution to problems concerning the development and distribution of medicines globally. It would incentivize the research and development of new pha ...

proposal. In 1999, she was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, of The Braid in the County of Antrim, and in 2007 was elected an Honorary FRS. She is also a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2002), a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society (2003), and Hon. Member

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

(2003), a Foreign Member of the

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(2004) and the

Norwegian Academy of Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

(2006) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution. In 2007, O'Neill became a Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2004 she was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bath. She is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London, an honour awarded in 2009. O'Neill also received an Honorary Doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

in 2007, and from Harvard in 2010. In October 2012, she was nominated as the next Chair of the

, and confirmed as such in January 2013. O'Neill was appointed a

Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. Founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire, it is sometimes ...

(CH) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to philosophy and public policy. In 2014, O'Neill was elected to the German order

Pour le mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste Pour may refer to these people: * Kour Pour (born 1987), British artist of part-Iranian descent * Mehdi Niyayesh Pour (born 1992), Iranian footballer * Mojtaba Mobini Pour (born 1991), Iranian footballer * Pouya Jalili Pour (born 1976), Iranian si ...

. In September 2015, during the XII. quinquennial international Kant-conference in Vienna, she received the ''Kant-Preis'' of the ''Fritz Thyssen Stiftung'' for her scholarly work on the practical and political philosophy of Immanuel Kant. (se
12th International Kant Congress 2015 » Social Program
In February 2016, she was awarded the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her outstanding contribution to moral and ethical questions of trust, accountability in civic life, justice and virtue. Currently, she is the president of the

Society for Applied Philosophy The Society for Applied Philosophy is a philosophical organization founded in 1982 by Brenda Almond. The purpose of the organization is promoting study and research in philosophy in areas with real-world applications, and work that is intended to ...

, a society founded in 1982 with the aim of promoting philosophical study and research that has a direct bearing on areas of practical concern. In 2017, she was awarded the Norwegian

Holberg Prize The Holberg Prize is an international prize awarded annually by the government of Norway to outstanding scholars for work in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary ...

for outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities "for her influential role in ethical and political philosophy". The same year she was awarded the

. O'Neill is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College. In 2021, O'Neill received an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp.

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * * * * * (with Neil Manson) * * * *

Selected articles

* * * ::''See also'': *

References

External links

"On the Side of the Angels"
Video of Onora O'Neill debating Ken Livingstone and Peter Lilley at HowTheLightGetsIn Festival, 2 June 2013
What Should Press Regulation Regulate?
Podcast of Baroness O'Neill speaking at a conference by the Foundation for Law, Justice & Society, Oxford, 2012
Media Freedoms and Media Standards
Centre for Ethics & Law Annual Lecture, University College London, 28 November 201
Pdf.Reith Lectures 2002 on ''A Question of Trust'' by O'Neill
House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 3 March 1999
List of O'Neill's published books and papers in academic journals
*
Amy Gutmann on Onora O'Neill
University of Pennsylvania president and

juror Amy Gutmann on Onora O'Neill *
IV—The Most Extensive Liberty
' Onora O'Neill, '' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Volume 80, Issue 1, 1 June 1980, Pages 45–60, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/80.1.45

pen Access A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity whi ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Onora 1941 births Living people 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British philosophers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni British women philosophers Crossbench life peers People educated at St Paul's Girls' School Principals of Newnham College, Cambridge People from County Antrim Hastings Center Fellows Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Presidents of the British Academy Political philosophers Bioethicists Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Fellows of the British Academy Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society Female Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Irish Academy Holberg Prize laureates