"Bernard Williams saw the moral dimensions of politics more deeply and more clearly than any thinker of his generation. His seminal essay "The Idea of Equality," included here, exemplifies this gift. It exploded the conventional wisdom that equality of opportunity is a less demanding political ideal than is substantive equality. This opened the way for John Rawls and his successors to try to establish what genuine equality of opportunity in a just society could mean. In this, as in so many of the subjects treated in this sparkling and captivating volume, the long shadow of his influence will be with us for many years to come. Bernard Williams set the questions."--Ian Shapiro, Yale University, author of "The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences"
"Williams was one of the most important philosophers of the late twentieth century. He managed to combine an extraordinary sense for a real philosophical problem with an equally impressive gift for keeping in touch with the deepest issues of human life. Each of the essays here identifies a topic on which one longs to hear Williams's views, articulated with his characteristic combination of humane learning and intellectual rigor."--Kwame Anthony Appiah, Princeton University
"All of Bernard Williams's characteristic brilliance and range is on display in these essays, which together form a volume of permanent value for anyone with an interest in contemporary philosophy and its engagement with the social and political world."--Richard Moran, Harvard University
