[1][2] The daughter of Sir Con O'Neill, she was educated partly in Germany and at St Paul's Girls' School, London, before studying philosophy, psychology and physiology at Somerville College, Oxford.

[citation needed] She is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, a former President of the British Academy (2005–2009) and chaired the Nuffield Foundation (1998–2010).

[3] In 2001, she delivered the Gifford Lectures on Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics at the University of Edinburgh, and again in 2013 with a series titled From Toleration to Freedom of Expression.

She has written extensively about trust, noting "that people often choose to rely on the very people whom they claimed not to trust" and suggesting that we "need to free professionals and the public service to serve the public...to work towards more intelligent forms of accountability...[and] to rethink a media culture in which spreading suspicion has become a routine activity".

quinquennial international Kant-conference in Vienna, she received the Kant-Preis of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung for her scholarly work on the practical and political philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

(see 12th International Kant Congress 2015 » Social Program) In February 2016, she was awarded the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her outstanding contribution to moral and ethical questions of trust, accountability in civic life, justice and virtue.

[21] In 2017, she was awarded the Norwegian Holberg Prize for outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities "for her influential role in ethical and political philosophy".