Metaphysical Animals
How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN
AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK
A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
Elizabeth Anscombe: defiantly brilliant, chain-smoking, trouser-wearing Catholic and (eventual) mother of seven.
Philippa Foot: pathalogically discreet, quietly rebellious granddaughter of a US president.
Mary Midgley: witty scholar and careful observer of humans and animals alike.
Iris Murdoch: aspiring novelist and Francophile with the power to seduce (almost) anyone.
Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a vivid portrait of the endeavours and achievements of these four remarkable women. As undergraduates at Oxford during the Second World War, they shared ideas (as well as shoes, sofas and lovers). From the disorder and despair of war, they went on to breathe new life into philosophy, creating a radically fresh way of thinking about freedom, reality and human goodness that is there for us today.
'Evocative and sparkling' New York Times
'A triumph' Mail on Sunday
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This edifying debut by philosophy professors Cam Cumhaill and Wiseman tells the stories of four female philosophy pioneers: Mary Midgley, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch. Through interviews with Midgley and "fragments from letters, journals, photos, conversations, notebooks, reminiscences and postcards," the authors detail how these women broke into the male-dominated field of philosophy, beginning with the quartet's time together as Oxford students during WWII and following their intellectual trajectories over the ensuing decades. Biographical anecdotes illuminate how these philosophers connected "seemingly abstract and esoteric enquiries with... urgent and real ethical, practical and spiritual questions," including, for example, how Nazi atrocities convinced Midgley to pursue moral philosophy at a time when linguistics dominated the field, and how Harry S. Truman's responsibility for civilian deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki spurred Anscombe to protest Oxford awarding him an honorary degree. Though the prose can be dense, the research is thorough and provides a cogent counternarrative to traditional male-centric histories of mid–20th-century philosophy. These four philosophers might not appear on standard syllabi, but this detailed chronicle makes a persuasive case that they should.
