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W. D. Ross

Sir William David Ross KBE FBA (15 April 1877 – 5 May 1971), known as David Ross but usually cited as W. D. Ross, was a Scottish Aristotelian philosopher, translator, WWI veteran, civil servant, and university administrator. His best-known work is The Right and the Good (1930), in which he developed a pluralist, deontological form of intuitionist ethics in response to G. E. Moore's consequentialist form of intuitionism. Ross also critically edited and translated a number of Aristotle's works, such as his 12-volume translation of Aristotle together with John Alexander Smith, and wrote on other Greek philosophy.

Sir W. D. Ross
KBE FBA

William David Ross

(1877-04-15)15 April 1877
Thurso, Scotland

5 May 1971(1971-05-05) (aged 94)

Oxford, England

University of Edinburgh
Balliol College, Oxford

20th-century philosophy

Western philosophy

Analytic philosophy

Ethics, Greek philosophy

Deontological pluralism (ethical non-naturalism / ethical intuitionism / ethical pluralism),[1] prima facie moral duties,[2] criticism of consequentialism

Family[edit]

His younger brother was minister Donald George Ross (1879–1943).


He married Edith Ogden in 1906 and they had four daughters, Margaret (who married Robin Harrison), Eleanor, Rosalind (who married John Miller Martin), and Katharine. Edith died in 1953.


He was a cousin of Berriedale Keith.

1908: . Translated by W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Nicomachean Ethics

1923:

Aristotle

1924:

Aristotle's Metaphysics

1927: . International Journal of Ethics, 37:113–127.

'The Basis of Objective Judgments in Ethics'

1930:

The Right and the Good

1936: Aristotle's Physics

1939:

Foundations of Ethics

1949: Aristotle's Prior and Posterior Analytics

1951:

Plato's Theory of Ideas

1954: , Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kant's Ethical Theory: A Commentary on the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten

'Sir David Ross', Proceedings of the British Academy, 57 (1971), pp. 525–543

G. N. Clark

. Rossian Ethics: W. D. Ross and Contemporary Moral Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Phillips, David

. 1967. 'Ross, William David'. In P. Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. New York: Macmillan: 216–217.

Stout, A. K

Stratton-Lake, Philip. 2002. 'Introduction'. In Ross, W. D. 1930. The Right and the Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Timmons, Mark. 2003. [Book Review] Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

'Moral Writings and The Right and the Good'.

Skelton, Anthony. . In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

"William David Ross"

by David L. Simpson in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2012

"William David Ross"

a biography and online lectures at the Gifford Lectures website

William David Ross

Cooley, Ken.

Sir David Ross's Pluralistic Theory of Duty (The Beginnings)