Professor James Urmson
Professor James Urmson, the moral philosopher who has died aged 96, subjected the religious concept of “going beyond the call of duty” to the cold light of secular examination
Yet Saints and Heroes (1958), the paper in which he examined the concept of “supererogation”, was informed by personal experience. In May 1943, during the last stages of the Tunisia Campaign, Urmson was awarded an immediate MC for his “courage and skill” as a captain in the 1st Battalion the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
Professor James Urmson
Urmson was decorated for braving enemy fire to keep his battalion supplied with ammunition, ensuring that their tenuous hold on the hill of Bou Aoukaz was maintained during a crucial phase before the final assault on Tunis. According to his citation: “ It was largely due to the replenishment of supplies ensured by Captain Urmson that the feature was held during the precarious period.”
In his article, Urmson asked whether it is possible for an action to be morally good but not morally obligatory — in other words whether there is such a thing as going beyond the call of duty. Using two archetypes — a doctor who volunteers to join the depleted medical forces in a plague-stricken city (the “saint”) and a soldier who throws himself on a grenade in order to save his comrades (the “hero”) as a touchstone for his argument, he maintained that while moral obligations “can be extracted from a man like a debt”, it would be wrong to claim that a doctor who did not volunteer for a plague-stricken city, or a soldier who did not sacrifice his life for his comrades had failed in his duty. Traditionally moral action had been given a threefold categorisation: the obligatory, the permitted and the prohibited. Urmson argued that this was too restrictive. Any ethical system must allow for actions that are morally praiseworthy but optional. Thus, he argued, there should be a fourth category — actions which are good to do but not bad not to do.
Urmson’s view was rooted in a concern about the application of moral precepts to everyday life. Moral obligations, he argued, must be “within the capacity of the ordinary man,” and must be “formulable in rules of manageable complexity”. Rules which most people are incapable of obeying merely weaken the general respect for moral precepts. Making saintly or heroic acts a matter of moral obligation, he argued, removes ethical questions from normal human experience.
Urmson’s article has continued to stimulate debate, spawning a substantial volume of literature, with Kantian champions of the “categorical imperative” (who argue that our idea of a morally right action should not be dependent on how difficult it may be for some people to do it), pitted against utilitarian proponents of “common-sense morality”. There was little doubt where Urmson’s sympathies lay: “on the whole the best philosophy is little affected by theory; the philosopher sees what needs doing and does it”.
The son of a Methodist minister, James Opie Urmson was born in Hornsea,Yorkshire, on March 4 1915 and educated at Kingswood School, Bath, then at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read Mods and Greats.
At the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Army and was commissioned into the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. After the action for which he was awarded an MC, he was captured at Anzio and spent the rest of the war in a German PoW camp, “playing bridge and doing mathematics”.
After the war Urmson returned to Oxford as a fellow of Christ Church. In 1955 he was appointed to a new chair of Philosophy at Queen’s College, Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews. He returned to Oxford in 1959 as a Philosophy fellow of Corpus Christi. He remained there until his retirement in 1978, with interludes as visiting professor at various American universities. After retirement he was appointed Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, at Stanford University.
During his time at Oxford, Urmson, with his colleague Geoffrey Warnock, did much to promote the development of “analytic” philosophy by preparing for publication the papers of JL Austin, the philosopher of language. He also translated a number of volumes of Aristotle, and commentaries on Aristotle by Simplicius, for the “Ancient Commentators on Aristotle” series published by Cornell University Press. His book Aristotle’s Ethics (1988) was praised as an excellent introduction to the subject. Other publications include The Emotive Theory of Ethics (1968); Berkeley (1982); and The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary (1990). In 1960 he edited the Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy.
A keen gardener, in retirement in Cumnor, Oxfordshire, Urmson took an active part in village life and enjoyed playing the oboe in amateur orchestras.
He married, in 1940, Marion Drage, who died in 2010. He is survived by their daughter.
Professor James Urmson, born March 4 1915, died January 29 2012
At the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Army and was commissioned into the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. After the action for which he was awarded an MC, he was captured at Anzio and spent the rest of the war in a German PoW camp, “playing bridge and doing mathematics”.
After the war Urmson returned to Oxford as a fellow of Christ Church. In 1955 he was appointed to a new chair of Philosophy at Queen’s College, Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews. He returned to Oxford in 1959 as a Philosophy fellow of Corpus Christi. He remained there until his retirement in 1978, with interludes as visiting professor at various American universities. After retirement he was appointed Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, at Stanford University.
During his time at Oxford, Urmson, with his colleague Geoffrey Warnock, did much to promote the development of “analytic” philosophy by preparing for publication the papers of JL Austin, the philosopher of language. He also translated a number of volumes of Aristotle, and commentaries on Aristotle by Simplicius, for the “Ancient Commentators on Aristotle” series published by Cornell University Press. His book Aristotle’s Ethics (1988) was praised as an excellent introduction to the subject. Other publications include The Emotive Theory of Ethics (1968); Berkeley (1982); and The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary (1990). In 1960 he edited the Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy.
A keen gardener, in retirement in Cumnor, Oxfordshire, Urmson took an active part in village life and enjoyed playing the oboe in amateur orchestras.
He married, in 1940, Marion Drage, who died in 2010. He is survived by their daughter.
Professor James Urmson, born March 4 1915, died January 29 2012
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