Bernard Williams dead

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Professor Sir Bernard Williams, who has died aged 73, was arguably the greatest British philosopher of his era. He revivified moral philosophy, which had become moribund, and pioneered the current debates on personal identity and the self, and on the notion of equality.

Dazzlingly quick and devastating in discussion, he was famously able to summarise other people's arguments better than they could themselves, and anticipate an antagonist's objections to his objections - and, in turn, his objections to hers before she had even finished her sentence. Utterly rigorous, yet wonderfully non-academic, his philosophy is permeated by a distinctive philosophical voice - witty, erudite and humane - and by a sense of his own humorous and tragic view of life. He always, as one of his devoted ex-students observed, did philosophy as a whole human being.

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Bernard Williams dead at 73

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Professor Sir Bernard Williams, who died on Tuesday aged 73, was one of the most influential British philosophers of the 20th century, best known for his work on moral philosophy, questions of personal identity and the history of philosophy.

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