Annette Baier

Annette Baier studied at University of Otago. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is philosophy of mind, ethics and philosophy of language. David Hume and Ludwig Wittgenstein are recorded as an influence. Employment is recorded with University of Pittsburgh. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, Carus Lectures and honorary doctor of the University of Otago.

• Region — Western philosophy • Era — Contemporary philosophy • Name — Annette Baier • Birth Name — Annette Claire Stoop • Born — 11 October 1929 • Birthplace — New Zealand • Died — 2 November 2012 • Place of death — Dunedin, New Zealand • School Tradition — Analytic philosophy • Main Interests — Ethics, feminist philosophy, philosophy of mind • Notable Ideas — The ethical significance of trust • Alma Mater — University of Otago Somerville College, Oxford

Baier earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Otago in her native Dunedin, New Zealand. In 1952 she went to Somerville College, Oxford, where she earned her PhD and met fellow philosophers Philippa Foot and G. E. M. Anscombe. For most of her career she taught in the philosophy department at the University of Pittsburgh, having moved there from Carnegie Mellon University. She retired to Dunedin. She was former President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, an office reserved for the elite of her profession. Baier received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Otago in 1999. Her husband was the philosopher Kurt Baier.

Baier's approach to ethics is that women and men make their decisions about right and wrong based on different value systems: men take their moral decisions according to an idea of justice, while women are motivated by a sense of trust or caring. The history of philosophy having been overwhelmingly compiled by men, she suggests, leads to a body of thought which apparently ignores the role of nurture and trust in human philosophy.

* * •, including especially "What Do Women Want in an Ethical Theory?" and "The Need For More Than Justice". * * * *

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