Abstract
The aim of my paper will be to provide a commentary on the introduction to the French edition of Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985) by Bernard Williams (1929–2003) and to show the Nietzschean legacy that is made explicit there. In this introduction, called “L'éthique, question de style?” and published in 1990, Williams reflects on some of the problems of style that his book poses to French readers, to whom he feels his work is less familiar. Furthermore, Williams recalls some moments of the Royaumont colloquium (which he attended in 1958) and dwells on some peculiarities that distinguish him from analytic philosophy, “French” philosophy, Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Finally, the text closes with a description of the image of the philosopher to whom Williams feels closest—that of Nietzsche—and illustrates the reasons that distance him from other models of philosophical writing.
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Notes
See Intervista a Bernard Williams, a cura di Sebastiano Maffettone, in “Notizie di Politeia”, II, 4, 1986, pp. 15–18.
B. Williams, On Opera, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2006, p. xiii.
This is an excerpt from the transcript of Michael Berkeley’s interview with Bernard Williams during the program BBC Radio 3 “Private Passions”. The transcript is by Jack Wearing, whom I thank.
The passages commented come from the original English version of the text, Ethics, a matter of style?, first published in Philosophical Inquiries, IX, 2, 2021, pp. 269–284. For a short commentary in English, written differently and with different motives than this one, see: P. Babbiotti, N. Krishnan, M. Marquier, Commentary to B. Williams's French Introduction to Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Philosophical Inquiries, IX, 2, 2021, pp. 269–284.
B. Williams, Ethics, a matter of style?, cit., p. 269.
Ivi, p. 270.
Ivi, p. 273.
In the commentary written with Nikhil Krishnan and Mathis Marquier, we used the same extract from Lipovetsky’s book as a significant example. See: footnote 16 in B. Williams, Ethics, a matter of style?, cit., p. 273.
B. Williams, Ethics, a matter of style?, cit., p. 274.
See P. Babbiotti, Attraverso gli esempi. Lo stile filosofico di Bernard Williams, «Rivista di Filosofia», 1, Aprile, 2021, pp. 43–59.
I. Murdoch, Sartre. Romantic Rationalist (1953), New York, Viking, 1987, pp. 78–79.
B. Williams. Nietzsche’s Minimalist Moral Psychology, in Making Sense of Humanity. And Other Philosophical Papers 1982–1993. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 65–76.
B. Williams, Ethics, a matter of style?, cit., pp. 277–278.
Ivi, p. 281.
See P. Babbiotti, Compression: Nietzsche, Williams, and the Problem of Style, «European Journal of Philosophy», 2020.
B. Williams, Ethics, a matter of style?, cit., p. 282.
F. Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. A Book for free Spirits (1878), trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
B. Williams, Truth and Truthfulness. An Essay in Genealogy, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2002.
R. M. Hare, A Philosophical Autobiography, «Utilitas», 14, 2002, pp. 269–305.
D. Parfit, On What Matters, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011.
B. Williams, Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 211.
F. Nietzsche, Writings from the Late Notebooks, ed. by Rüdiger Bittner, trans by Kate Sturge, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 121.
B. Williams, Truth and Truthfulness, cit., p. 269.
B. Williams, On Opera, cit., p. 52.
Ivi, p. 56.
F. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), ed. by K. A. Pearson, trans. by C. Diethe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 10–11.
B. Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985). London, UK, Routledge, 2011, p. 190.
F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, ed. by R. Geuss and R. Speirs, trans. by R. Speirs, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 4.
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Babbiotti, P. “Ethics, a Matter of Style?”. Bernard Williams and the Nietzschean Legacy. Topoi 43, 549–556 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-023-09972-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-023-09972-9