Mary Midgley

Owl of Minerva (eBook, ePUB)

A Memoir

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

"Charming, interesting, thought-provoking and a great read." Rosalind Hursthouse
The daughter of a pacifist rector who answered "No!" when his congregation asked him "Is everything in the bible true?," perhaps Mary Midgley was destined to become a philosopher. Yet few would have thought this inquisitive, untidy, nature-loving child would become "one of the sharpest critical pens in the west."
This is her remarkable story. Probably the only philosopher to have been in Vienna on the eve of its invasion by Nazi Germany in 1938 and dance in Trafalgar Square on VE day seven year later, she studied philosophy at Oxford in the same year as Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, all of whom became close friends. Midgley tells us in vivid and humorous fashion how they cut a swathe through the arid landscape of 1950s British philosophy, writing and arguing - often with each other - about the grand themes of character, beauty and the meaning of rudeness while the spectral figure of Ludwig Wittgenstein hovered in the background.
She also charts the highs and lows of philosophy and academia in Britain. On joining the Reading philosophy department on 400 a year in 1949, she doubled its staff complement. But her many years at Newcastle University - where Mike Brearley, who later captained England at cricket, also used to teach - were rewarded with the closure of the philosophy department in the 1980s.
The mother of three children, her journey is also one of a woman who in the 1950s and 1960s was fighting to combine a professional career with raising a family. In startling contrast to many of the academic stars of her generation, we learn that Midgley nearly became anovelist and started writing philosophy only when in her fifties, suggesting that Minerva's owl really does fly at dusk.
Plainly told like her philosophy, this is an elegiac and moving account of friendships found and lost, bitter philosophical battles and of a profound love of

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Mai 2007
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781134208630
• Artikelnr.: 38264182

Autorenporträt

Mary Midgley (1919-2018) was one of the most renowned moral philosophers of her generation and the author of many books, including Beast and Man, Wickedness and The Myths We Live By. She has taken part in many broadcast events, including The Moral Maze and Woman's Hour.

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword: Light, Darkness and Owls Part 1 Early Days, 1924-33 Greenford Rectory Starting School Moving On Greenford Growing Parental Activities Other Scrutton Relatives More Relatives - The Hays Ladies and Non-Ladies Part 2 Ancestors Thomas Urquhart and the Universal Language Early Scruttons The Lord Justice Part 3 At Downe House School, 1932-37 The Place Learning This And That Attending to History; Collingwood A World Apart Part 4 At Oxford, 1938-42 Preparations First Impressions Marxist Dreams Studying the Classics A Changing World Life in Wartime Marxism in Decline Starting Greats The Philosophical Scene What is Empiricism? Gender Queries What Iris Said Part 5 Wartime Jobs, 1942-45 In The Civil Service Interlude at Downe At Bedford School Part 6 In Oxford Again, 1945-9 On Boar's Hill Winter Interlude Not Doing the B.Phil. Part 7 At Reading, 1949-50 Dialectical Difficulties Part 8 At Newcastle, 1950 - 2004 Settling In Journalistic Ploys Newcastle University The Philosophy Department Writing About Beasts And Other Things Family Movements; Geoff's Activities Darker Weather; Survival Strategies

Rezensionen

'Not only a superbly lively account of being educated in the first half of the twentieth century, but a portrait of one of the most utterly sensible, accessible and humane philosophers of our age.' - Archbishop Rowan Williams, Times Literary Supplement

'Her memoir is a warm and reassuring account of the value of civilised life and of the confidence it can provide.' - The Scotsman

'A warm and humorous memoir by one of the UKs leading moral philosophers. Many young students sense well enough that in the present darkness, articulate and well-informed understanding of their scientific civilization, its values and politics is necessary. They need their Midgleys.' - Simon Blackburn, The New Scientist

'Not only a superbly lively account of being educated in the first half of the twentieth century, but a portrait of one of the most utterly sensible, accessible and humane philosophers of our age.' - Archbishop Rowan Williams, Times Literary Supplement

'Her memoir is a warm and reassuring account of the value of civilised life and of the confidence it can provide.' - The Scotsman

'A warm and humorous memoir by one of the UKs leading moral philosophers. Many young students sense well enough that in the present darkness, articulate and well-informed understanding of their scientific civilization, its values and politics is necessary. They need their Midgleys.' - Simon Blackburn, The New Scientist