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A review by cais
The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics by Benjamin J B Lipscomb
5.0
4.5
“What came of it all? The world never halts, waiting for philosophers’ theories…The four friends shone a new, old light on the human landscape. They let us see ourselves differently, and better.”
What were the women up to? Nothing less than revolutionizing the Oxford-style, male-dominated field of philosophy. They were also forming friendships, having love affairs, causing some controversies, trying to secure jobs & make a buck. Though (I’m going 1st name basis) Elizabeth, Philippa, Iris & Mary came from quite different backgrounds & had very different personalities, they were united by their commitment to rich philosophical discussions & truth seeking.
WWII largely cleared most male students out of Oxford for a while, which meant the women had more space, more time with tutors & could start to develop the thinking that would mature later on. The WWII era led many men to develop & embrace theories of a value-free universe where values such as right & wrong are mere projections (think Existentialism, Emotivism). Many of the most vocal & admired male philosophers were “committed to a metaphysical picture on which the things the Nazis did were not objectively wrong. And that was the thought that [these four women] were determined to resist.”
Resist they did! Images from the death camps or face-to-face experience with war’s victims – the realities of people’s lives – further led them to believe that “there are moral truths, grounded in the distinctive nature of our species.” Individually, together & with some guiding lights (Wittgenstein, for one) they developed their arguments against what they saw as faddish thinking, against a philosophical tribalism that was “antithetical to truth-seeking.” It was ups & downs as far as progress, but they persisted, each in her own way, sometimes on diverging paths.
Besides providing a portrait of the four women, this book works as a really good philosophy primer. To understand any of these women’s lives & their work, you have to have a grasp of the philosophy they were contending with. This book very coherently explains the mid-20th century British & Continental philosophy that was so influential it still holds sway over people today. He also explains the problems with this thinking & the women’s responses to it very clearly.
It’s a great book, constructed so well in how it goes back & forth in time to explain each woman’s philosophical journey & the dynamics of their friendships.
“What came of it all? The world never halts, waiting for philosophers’ theories…The four friends shone a new, old light on the human landscape. They let us see ourselves differently, and better.”
What were the women up to? Nothing less than revolutionizing the Oxford-style, male-dominated field of philosophy. They were also forming friendships, having love affairs, causing some controversies, trying to secure jobs & make a buck. Though (I’m going 1st name basis) Elizabeth, Philippa, Iris & Mary came from quite different backgrounds & had very different personalities, they were united by their commitment to rich philosophical discussions & truth seeking.
WWII largely cleared most male students out of Oxford for a while, which meant the women had more space, more time with tutors & could start to develop the thinking that would mature later on. The WWII era led many men to develop & embrace theories of a value-free universe where values such as right & wrong are mere projections (think Existentialism, Emotivism). Many of the most vocal & admired male philosophers were “committed to a metaphysical picture on which the things the Nazis did were not objectively wrong. And that was the thought that [these four women] were determined to resist.”
Resist they did! Images from the death camps or face-to-face experience with war’s victims – the realities of people’s lives – further led them to believe that “there are moral truths, grounded in the distinctive nature of our species.” Individually, together & with some guiding lights (Wittgenstein, for one) they developed their arguments against what they saw as faddish thinking, against a philosophical tribalism that was “antithetical to truth-seeking.” It was ups & downs as far as progress, but they persisted, each in her own way, sometimes on diverging paths.
Besides providing a portrait of the four women, this book works as a really good philosophy primer. To understand any of these women’s lives & their work, you have to have a grasp of the philosophy they were contending with. This book very coherently explains the mid-20th century British & Continental philosophy that was so influential it still holds sway over people today. He also explains the problems with this thinking & the women’s responses to it very clearly.
It’s a great book, constructed so well in how it goes back & forth in time to explain each woman’s philosophical journey & the dynamics of their friendships.