Mary Midgley

Abstract

Mary Beatrice Midgley (née Scrutton; b. 13 September 1919–d. 10 October 2018) wrote twenty philosophical books that use an engaging style and surprisingly domestic metaphors to convey profound thought about a diverse range of topics, including human nature, animals, environmentalism, ethics, science, gender, and the practice of philosophy itself. Her first book was the influential Beast and Man, published in 1978, and her last was What Is Philosophy For?, a defense of the need for philosophical thinking, published just before her death at the age of ninety-nine. Midgley has recently garnered more philosophical attention and is now widely recognized as an original and incisive voice in philosophy. The daughter of a pacifist curate, Midgley was born in Dulwich, London, before moving to Cambridge, Greenford, and Kingston. A nature-loving child, with passions for drama and poetry, she was educated at Downe House School near Newbury, before reading Classics and Greats at Somerville College, Oxford, between 1938 and 1942. Here she met her fellow members of the wartime Quartet of women philosophers (see the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy articles on “G. E. M. Anscombe,” “Philippa Foot,” and “Iris Murdoch”). The four became great friends and influenced each other throughout their working lives. Their connections include a frustration with the narrowness of the systematic philosophy that was in vogue during their formative years, and the revival of virtue in moral philosophy. Unlike her contemporaries, Midgley published little work until her fifties, after she had raised children and left academic philosophy. As Midgley said, “I wrote no books until I was a good 50, and I’m jolly glad because I didn’t know what I thought before then.” For this reason, Midgley’s writing is striking in its consistency. Articles of this kind often chart changes of mind and theoretical revisions. While Midgley’s thought undoubtedly developed and expanded, there are no early or late periods, marked by stark differences of view. One of Midgley’s criticisms of her predecessors concerned their neglect of the history of ideas. Midgley holds that to understand a philosophical system, we must understand the context in which it arose. Philosophy and culture are interconnected: the great thinkers of any era are influenced by their historical circumstances, and the patterns of thought within a culture are, whether we realize it or not, profoundly philosophical. Philosophy, she argues, is indispensable, because it allows us to make sense of our current predicaments and—where necessary—make changes to our patterns of thought.