R. M. Hare, the British moral philosopher who invented universal prescriptivism, died five years ago today. Not many moral philosophers think as carefully or write as crisply as Hare did, which is why so many of us have learned so much from him for so long. (This is not to say that everyone agrees with him!) Hare did important work in all three branches of ethics: metaethics, normative ethical theory, and practical ethics. Here is my annotated bibliography (a work in progress). Here is Hare’s philosophical self-portrait. Here is a website that contains many writings by and about Hare. If you’d like to read something by Hare, I recommend “Abortion and the Golden Rule.” Philosophy must be read slowly and carefully, so take your time. If you can, you should read it twice: the first time to see the “forest,” the second time to examine the “trees.”