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Joseph Raz

Joseph Raz was an Israeli legal, moral and political philosopher who taught for most of his career at Oxford and is known for legal positivism and perfectionist liberalism.

1939 to 2022Legal positivismPerfectionist liberalismThe service conception of authorityThe Morality of Freedom

Born: 21 March 1939, Palestine
Died: 2 May 2022, Hammersmith
Occupation: philosopher, university teacher, jurist
Education: Balliol College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Joseph Raz was born in 1939 in Palestine

Joseph Raz was born Joseph Zaltsman on 21 March 1939 in Haifa, in Mandatory Palestine. His parents were Sonya and Shmuel Zaltsman. In 1963 he changed his surname to Raz.

He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1963. He met the philosopher H. L. A. Hart at a conference in Israel, and Hart encouraged him to study at Oxford. Raz completed his doctorate at Balliol College under Hart in 1967.

He returned to teach law and philosophy at the Hebrew University and received tenure in 1971. In 1972 he went back to Balliol, and he was professor of philosophy of law at Oxford from 1985 to 2006. He also taught at Columbia Law School from 2002 and at King's College London from 2011.

Raz wrote and edited 12 books, including The Morality of Freedom, which developed his view of perfectionist liberalism. He argued for the service conception of authority and defended value pluralism. He died in London on 2 May 2022.