R. M. Hare
British philosopher; pupil of R.M. Hare at Balliol College, Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy.
He was a pupil of R.M. Hare at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Greats. He was a Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford for 36 years until his 1996 retirement, and remained an emeritus member of the University Faculty of Philosophy. He was a Fellow of the British Academy.
- born
- 18 June 1929
- died
- 5 April 2020
- field
- Philosophy
- nationality
- British
- known_for
- Paper 'Minds, Machines and Gödel' arguing against computationalism
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
Hare was educated at Winchester College and then, as a pupil of R.M. Hare, among others, at Balliol College, Oxford. He studied first mathematics, then Greats (Greek, Latin, Philosophy and Ancient History), obtaining first class honours in both. He sat for Finals in 1951, and took his MA in 1954. He spent the 1957–58 academic year at Princeton University, studying mathematics and logic. For 36 years, until his 1996 retirement, he was a Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford, and he remained an emeritus member of the University Faculty of Philosophy. He was a Fellow of the British Academy. In the early 1980s he, along with Roger Scruton, Kathy Wilkes, and Jürgen Habermas, delivered covert lectures on philosophy in response to a plea from the Czechoslovak intelligentsia. He gave his in a boiler room, handing out copies of the Greek New Testament and Plato’s Republic, both banned.
Reader's Guide
Hare is perhaps best known for his paper 'Minds, Machines and Gödel,' arguing that an automaton cannot represent a human mathematician, attempting to refute computationalism. An author with diverse teaching and research interests, he wrote on the philosophy of mathematics, especially the implications of Gödel's incompleteness theorem, the philosophy of mind, free will and determinism, the philosophy of science including one book on physics co-authored with Peter E. Hodgson, causality, political philosophy, ethics and business ethics, and the philosophy of religion. The son of a Church of England clergyman, and an Anglican himself, he described himself as 'a dyed-in-the-wool traditional Englishman.' He had four children (Edward, Helen, Richard and Deborah) with Morar Portal, among them Edward Lucas, a former journalist at The Economist. In addition to his philosophical career, he had a practical interest in business ethics. He helped found the Oxford Consumers' Group, and was its first chairman in 1961–3, serving again in 1965.
Did You Know?
- He studied first mathematics, then Greats, obtaining first class honours in both.
- He spent the 1957–58 academic year at Princeton University studying mathematics and logic.
- He helped found the Oxford Consumers' Group and was its first chairman in 1961–3, serving again in 1965.
- In the early 1980s he delivered covert lectures in a boiler room, handing out copies of the Greek New Testament and Plato’s Republic, both banned.
- He had four children with Morar Portal, including Edward Lucas, a former journalist at The Economist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is R. M. Hare?
Richard Mervyn Hare (1919–2002) was a British moral philosopher whose career spanned Oxford and the University of Florida. He is best remembered for reshaping how twentieth-century thinkers understood the logical structure of ethical language and for building a distinctive form of utilitarianism on that foundation.
What is universal prescriptivism?
Universal prescriptivism is Hare's meta-ethical framework proposing that moral statements function as commands that must be applied consistently to every relevantly similar situation. He grounded the theory in the formal characteristics of everyday moral language rather than in any particular substantive moral conclusion.
How does Hare's preference utilitarianism differ from classical utilitarianism?
Where classical utilitarianism maximizes pleasure or happiness, Hare's version instead aims to satisfy the preferences of all affected individuals. He argued this preference-based criterion follows naturally from the universalizing demands his prescriptivist analysis places on moral terms.
What academic posts did Hare hold?
He served as White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford from 1966 through 1983 and then continued teaching at the University of Florida for several additional years. His Oxford tenure placed him at the center of British analytical philosophy during a highly productive period.
Why is Hare significant in the history of moral philosophy?
His work bridged linguistic analysis and normative ethics, demonstrating that the logical form of moral language carries substantive implications for how we ought to reason about right and wrong. That insight made him a pivotal figure in second-half-twentieth-century meta-ethics and one of the most widely cited British moral philosophers of his era.
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