6 - Williams on Greek Literature and Philosophy

Summary

Having studied Greek and Latin at school and in the Oxford Mods and Greats curriculum, Bernard Williams received the philological and historical training that would have equipped him, if he had wished, to make a career as a professor of classics. He chose instead to make his mark as an exceptionally creative philosopher engaging with largely modern issues, but his classical education, his interests in Greek literature and philosophy, and his commitment to the history of philosophy, shine throughout his illustrious career, especially during its later years. In 1989, as Sather Professor of Classical Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, he delivered a series of six lectures on Greek literature, ethics, and moral psychology under the general title Shame and Necessity. Appointment to the Sather professorship is regarded in the community of classical scholars as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize. Williams' lectures, which attracted a large and appreciative audience, were published in 1993 in the book also entitled Shame and Necessity.

Because this volume is his most extended foray into the field of classics, I shall concentrate on it in this study; but by way of introduction, I begin with brief remarks about Williams' reflections on Greek philosophy and the Greeks in some of his other publications. Much of what he says in these works anticipates ideas he develops in Shame and Necessity. This book in its turn presupposes or draws upon numerous thoughts that Williams explores in other books, especially Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.