Mary Warnock (1924–2019)
Autor von Utilitarianism; [and], on Liberty; [and], Essay on Bentham
Über den Autor
Mary Warnock was born Helen Mary Wilson in Winchester, England on April 14, 1924. She studied classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She taught philosophy at St. Hugh's College, Oxford from 1949 to 1966. She was the headmistress of the all-girl Oxford High School from 1966 until 1972 and was the mehr anzeigen mistress of Girton College at the University of Cambridge from 1984 to 1991. She served on government panels that examined special education and laboratory experimentation using animals and was the chairwoman of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilization and Embryology in 1982. She was appointed a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1984 and became a life peer the following year. She took the title Baroness Warnock of Weeke and a seat in the House of Lords, from which she retired in 2015. She died after a fall on March 20, 2019 at the age of 94. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Warnock, Helen Mary, Baroness Warnock
- Andere Namen
- Wilson, Helen Mary (birth name)
Baroness Warnock of Weeke - Geburtstag
- 1924-04-14
- Todestag
- 2019-03-20
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- UK
- Land (für Karte)
- England, UK
- Geburtsort
- Winchester, England, UK
- Sterbeort
- Wiltshire, England, UK
- Ausbildung
- St Swithun's School, Winchester
University of Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall) - Berufe
- philosopher
radio presenter
autobiographer
teacher
university administrator - Beziehungen
- Warnock, Geoffrey J. (spouse)
- Organisationen
- House of Lords (Member, Select Committee on Euthanasia)
University of Oxford - Preise und Auszeichnungen
- Life Peerage (1985)
Lady Margaret Hall (Honorary Fellow, 1984)
Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander, 1984) - Kurzbiographie
- Mary Warnock, née Helen Mary Wilson, was the youngest of seven siblings. Her father was a housemaster and German teacher at Winchester College; he died before she was born. Mary was brought up by her mother at Kelso House in Winchester. She was educated at St. Swithun's, an Anglican school, and then won a scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford, where she graduated with a first class degree in 1948. In 1949 she married philosopher Geoffrey Warnock with whom she had five children. She taught philosophy at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, from 1949 to 1966. She served as head teacher of the Oxford High School from 1966 to 1972 and as head of Girton College, Cambridge, from 1984 to 1991. Mary Warnock chaired two British national committees of inquiry, each of which issued a significant report. The second and most influential was A Question of Life: The Warnock Report on Human Fertilisation and Embryology (1984). She is the author of numerous books on ethics, existentialism, and philosophy of mind, beginning with Ethics Since 1900 (1960); other works include Jean-Paul Sartre (1963), The Philosophy of Sartre (1965), Existentialist Ethics (1967), Schools of Thought (1977), Memory (1987), The Uses of Philosophy (1992), Imagination and Time (1994), An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics (1998), and Making Babies: Is There a Right to Have Children? (2002). In the 1960s, she became a regular philosophy commentator on BBC Radio. She was named a life peer in 1985 as Baroness Warnock of Weeke. Her autobiographical Mary Warnock: A Memoir—People and Places, was published in 2000, and Nature and Morality: Recollections of a Philosopher in Public Life, appeared in 2003.
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The existentialists did not have a coherent system of ethics as a group, because they were not really a group, nor did they all present a complete system individually. However, some of their thoughts on ethics were quite interesting from a theoretical point, as well as influential beyond the realm of philosophy. This short book gives us a summary on the thoughts of three major existentialists: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre.
Kierkegaard, arguably the first existentialist, described three phases of ethical development that people can pass through in their lives. This began with the lowest, the Aesthetic, progressing towards the higher Ethical, to the final and highest stage of the Religious. These were not stages that everyone passed through in order from birth to maturity; rather some people would remain at the lower end, while others who sought the truth would progress to the highest. Here, the key point which would influence future existentialists was the emphasis on the need for subjective real life experience in progressing toward goodness, as opposed to it being something that could be acquired purely by intellectual endeavour and unthinking text book learning. In other words, to progress from his second stage, the Ethical stage (in which conduct is guided by learnable objective principles), to his highest stage, the Religious, it was necessary via questioning to gain subjective insight of a religious nature, ie of God. It is important to note here that Kierkegaard classed the majority of “religious” people at the time as not being in the higher, Religious stage of development because they were unquestioning and had not reached a justified belief. This departure of ethics from being solely a universal, codifiable system as Kant or Spinoza would have it, to being a something one must earn through acceptance of principles plus experience and justified belief, is what went on to influence the systems of later existentialists, Heidegger and Sartre.
Heidegger did not class himself as an existentialist, but many others have done, not least for his influence on Sartre. Heidegger took God out of the system, and described the difference between an Authentic and Inauthentic existence. The Inauthentic existence is characterised by an unquestioning adherence to group norms without individual questioning of what is truly right, without listening to personal calls of conscience. In this latter point it has some similarities with Kierkegaard’s first and second phases, though it is a more general and basic existence. On the other hand, the Authentic existence is reached through a personal, subjective conviction of what is right justified by a questioning of one’s role in society and an individual acquisition of experience and knowledge. In this respect it is somewhat akin to Kierkegaard’s final, Religious phase, minus the object of the enlightenment being God, which is replaced by an awareness of one’s context in the universe, and some other differences.
Finally, Sartre ran with Heidegger’s distinction between Authentic and Inauthentic existence, and expanded on it. Sartre again places importance on an awareness of personal freedom and the role of the individual in determining his own path, in choosing his own principles, making his own decisions, and determining his own morality. Personal freedom and consciousness are linked here, with the unthinking, unquestioning participant in society being described as being like an object. Whereas the conscious individual is aware of his own freedom, often causing a vertiginous nausea, a theme he illustrates in his novels. Sartre also brings in the concept of Bad Faith, which is the blaming of one’s actions on external forces, or pretending that we do not have individual responsibility for our choices, using the excuse that we could not help doing what we do for whatever reason. The individual living in bad faith behaves like an object, and is what Sartre calls a Being-In-Itself, and has much in common with Heidegger’s Inauthentic person, implicated in their own deception. In contrast, Sartre’s Being-For-Itself is aware of its own freedom, and is responsible for determining his own behaviour. These are not two mutually exclusive modes of existence, rather they are co-existing modes within an individual which can have greater or lesser relative usage. This system becomes difficult to accept from an ethical point of view, because it can denigrate a right-acting, but unquestioning citizen, but can sometimes exalt a free-choosing, but wickedly-behaving individual. It sets sincerity, self-questioning, and awareness of personal freedom on the one hand against habit, group-adherance, and role-acting on the other. Of course this is a black and white opposition, but it is an interesting way to view the opposing tendencies within an individual.
In summary, this is a very concise and easy to read book on the ethical thoughts of three major existentialists. It would be useful reading for anyone interested in ethics, free will, or existentialism. Because it does not require extensive prior knowledge of their works, it would also be a good introduction to those who have not read their individual works before. However for those familiar with the original works this is also a very clear, concise, and helpful summation of what is often not presented with any brevity by the original authors.… (mehr)
Kierkegaard, arguably the first existentialist, described three phases of ethical development that people can pass through in their lives. This began with the lowest, the Aesthetic, progressing towards the higher Ethical, to the final and highest stage of the Religious. These were not stages that everyone passed through in order from birth to maturity; rather some people would remain at the lower end, while others who sought the truth would progress to the highest. Here, the key point which would influence future existentialists was the emphasis on the need for subjective real life experience in progressing toward goodness, as opposed to it being something that could be acquired purely by intellectual endeavour and unthinking text book learning. In other words, to progress from his second stage, the Ethical stage (in which conduct is guided by learnable objective principles), to his highest stage, the Religious, it was necessary via questioning to gain subjective insight of a religious nature, ie of God. It is important to note here that Kierkegaard classed the majority of “religious” people at the time as not being in the higher, Religious stage of development because they were unquestioning and had not reached a justified belief. This departure of ethics from being solely a universal, codifiable system as Kant or Spinoza would have it, to being a something one must earn through acceptance of principles plus experience and justified belief, is what went on to influence the systems of later existentialists, Heidegger and Sartre.
Heidegger did not class himself as an existentialist, but many others have done, not least for his influence on Sartre. Heidegger took God out of the system, and described the difference between an Authentic and Inauthentic existence. The Inauthentic existence is characterised by an unquestioning adherence to group norms without individual questioning of what is truly right, without listening to personal calls of conscience. In this latter point it has some similarities with Kierkegaard’s first and second phases, though it is a more general and basic existence. On the other hand, the Authentic existence is reached through a personal, subjective conviction of what is right justified by a questioning of one’s role in society and an individual acquisition of experience and knowledge. In this respect it is somewhat akin to Kierkegaard’s final, Religious phase, minus the object of the enlightenment being God, which is replaced by an awareness of one’s context in the universe, and some other differences.
Finally, Sartre ran with Heidegger’s distinction between Authentic and Inauthentic existence, and expanded on it. Sartre again places importance on an awareness of personal freedom and the role of the individual in determining his own path, in choosing his own principles, making his own decisions, and determining his own morality. Personal freedom and consciousness are linked here, with the unthinking, unquestioning participant in society being described as being like an object. Whereas the conscious individual is aware of his own freedom, often causing a vertiginous nausea, a theme he illustrates in his novels. Sartre also brings in the concept of Bad Faith, which is the blaming of one’s actions on external forces, or pretending that we do not have individual responsibility for our choices, using the excuse that we could not help doing what we do for whatever reason. The individual living in bad faith behaves like an object, and is what Sartre calls a Being-In-Itself, and has much in common with Heidegger’s Inauthentic person, implicated in their own deception. In contrast, Sartre’s Being-For-Itself is aware of its own freedom, and is responsible for determining his own behaviour. These are not two mutually exclusive modes of existence, rather they are co-existing modes within an individual which can have greater or lesser relative usage. This system becomes difficult to accept from an ethical point of view, because it can denigrate a right-acting, but unquestioning citizen, but can sometimes exalt a free-choosing, but wickedly-behaving individual. It sets sincerity, self-questioning, and awareness of personal freedom on the one hand against habit, group-adherance, and role-acting on the other. Of course this is a black and white opposition, but it is an interesting way to view the opposing tendencies within an individual.
In summary, this is a very concise and easy to read book on the ethical thoughts of three major existentialists. It would be useful reading for anyone interested in ethics, free will, or existentialism. Because it does not require extensive prior knowledge of their works, it would also be a good introduction to those who have not read their individual works before. However for those familiar with the original works this is also a very clear, concise, and helpful summation of what is often not presented with any brevity by the original authors.… (mehr)
A leader in modern commentary on ethics and philosophy, Mary Warnock casts a critical eye over her life and times.
Mary Warnock reflects on her involvement in the philosophical world of Oxford during its heyday in the fifties and sixties and on her life as a major, yet controversial, player in British politics. When Margaret Thatcher made her Chairman of the highly charged Enquiry into Human Fertilization, Mary entered the public spotlight. Her potent dislike of areas of british society, as well as her trenchant criticism of the changing nature of the educational system under Thatcher, give this book a unique insider's edge.… (mehr)
Mary Warnock reflects on her involvement in the philosophical world of Oxford during its heyday in the fifties and sixties and on her life as a major, yet controversial, player in British politics. When Margaret Thatcher made her Chairman of the highly charged Enquiry into Human Fertilization, Mary entered the public spotlight. Her potent dislike of areas of british society, as well as her trenchant criticism of the changing nature of the educational system under Thatcher, give this book a unique insider's edge.… (mehr)
Existentialism enjoyed great popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, and has probably had a greater impact upon literature than any other kind of philosophy. The common interest which unites Existentialist philosophers is their interest in human freedom. Readers of Existentialist philosophy are being asked, not merely to contemplate the nature of freedom, but to experience freedom, and to practise it. In this survey, Mary Warnock begins by considering the ethical origins of Existentialism, with particular reference to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and outlines the importance of a systematic account of man's connection with the world as expounded by Husserl. She discusses at length the common interests and ancestry of Existentialism in the works of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, and offers some conclusions about the current nature and future of this committed and practical philosophy. This revised edition includes a postscript reviewing the status of Existentialism in the 1990s, and has a thoroughly updated bibliography.… (mehr)
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At times the book becomes a little repetitive, as the formation of one board or another seems to follow a logic that does not need to be repeated. But as a documentation of the life and achievements of Warnock, and the importance of diplomacy in democratic political development, it was an excellent and informative read.… (mehr)