Background
Baler, Kurt Erich Maria was born on January 26, 1917 in Vienna, Austria.
Baler, Kurt Erich Maria was born on January 26, 1917 in Vienna, Austria.
Law, Vienna, 1935 8; BA. Philosophy, Melbourne (1st Honours, top of class) 1945, and Manuscripts and Archives (1st Honours, 1947). Graduate studies at Oxford, 1949-1952 (DPhil 1952). Infis: Hobbes, and more recently Stephen Toulmin and Gilbert Ryle.
Assistant Lecturer. 1945-1947, Lecturer, 1947-1949, 1953-1955;
Senior Lecturer, 1955-1956, Melbourne. Canberra University College, Foundation Professor, 1957-1962. Chairman, Department of Philosophy, 1962-1967, Professor of Philosophy, 1967-1981.
Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy, since 1981, Pittsburgh. Visiting Professor, Cornell, 1952, and Illinois, 1960. Matchette Lecturer, Brooklyn, 1964.
Teaching Member, First Summer Institute organized by Council for Philosophical Studies. Visiting Professor, Calgary, 1970. Sir Arthur Evans Visiting Professor, Otago, 1971.
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Delaware, Florida Atlantic, Lycoming College, W. Florida. Everett Hall Memorial Lecturer. Iowa, 1971; Lecturer, The Philosophical Perspectives Series.
Notre Dame, 1978; Visiting Professor, Florida.
Baier argues for a form of objectivity in ethics and for the view that ethical questions have a method of empirical verification and validation. Rejecting the views of Hobbes, Kant and Hume, he forges a socially grounded link between rationality and morality. The partial basis for this is his view that although moral judgments are normative, they are also natural statements of fact and are thus either true or false. For Baier traditional ethical theories fail to answer the problem of moral knowledge, and particularly against intuitionism he urges that values are neither simple qualities nor intuited. Most notably, Baier holds to the untenability of egoism as moral theory. We move beyond selfinterest to ‘the moral point of view’ partly through recognition that egoism leads to a Hobbesian state of nature in which life is nasty, brutish and short. Baier asserts the rationality of a system of rules for interaction, and it is the specifically ethical requirement of‘interpersonal compatibility’ which provides the ‘weightiest’ reason in any course of action. A legal system is the closest analogue to a moral system for Baier. who outlines the conditions of a robust theory of personal and social obligations and argues that utilitarianism fails adequately to account for obligation and fairness. His view of punishment is that it is by nature retributive. Baier’s neoHobbesian contractarianism has influenced recent ethicists such as David Gauthier. Related metaethica! interests see Baier address questions of logic and ordinary linguistic usage in moral discourse, and questions of the nature and status of pain. He explores issues of individual control and agency, and the broader metaphysical concerns of the meaning of life. Baier has written extensively on such practical ethical issues as moral education, business ethics and culture, technology and value, and he has translated Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind into German. Sources: Directory of American Scholars, 9, 1969; Philosophical Investigations.