William David Ross

Sir William David Ross (15 April 1877 – 5 May 1971), 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. Ross was born in Thurso, Scotland. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh, and later at Balliol College, Oxford. He served in World War I and held significant administrative positions at the University of Oxford, including Vice-Chancellor. He died in Oxford at the age of 94. Ross was a moral realist, a non-naturalist, and an intuitionist, arguing that moral truths are self-evident and that there are multiple prima facie duties that guide moral action. His work has been influential in contemporary ethical theory.