Patrlck Horace Nowell-Smith

Background

Nowell-Smith, Patrlck Horace was born in 1914 in near Padstow, England.

Education

University of Oxford and Harvard University.

Career

1946 57, Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford. 1957-1964, Professor of Philosophy, University of Leicester. 1964-1969, University of Kent; 1969-1985, Professor of Philosophy, York University, Toronto.

Views

In the style current in Oxford after the Second World War, Nowell-Smith’s most important work explores the logic of ethical concepts. Basically accepting Moore’s account of the Naturalistic Fallacy, he held that there was a crucial distinction between describing and evaluating. He emphasized that evaluative words have a number of different functions, but their most fundamental use was in the context of choosing. His account is thus similar to that of R. M. Hare. Ethics (1954) also contained influential discussions of egoism, the sense of duty and freedom of the will.

Interests

• Ethics; philosophy of history.