Education for metaphysical animals

Abstract

This essay explores the legacy of the four philosophers now often referred to as ‘The Wartime Quartet’: G.E.M. Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley. The life and work of the four, who studied together in Oxford during the Second World War, is the subject of two recently published books, The Women Are Up to Something, by Benjamin Lipscomb, and Metaphysical Animals, by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman. The two books show us how Anscombe, Murdoch, Foot and Midgley became friends united in their hostility to the logical‐positivist orthodoxy of the day and its deleterious influence on Oxford moral philosophy. And we see how their friendship had a formative influence on their subsequent—highly distinguished—careers, so that it is possible to discern, if not exactly a school of thought, then various common themes, ideas and concerns, which are expressed and developed in contrasting ways. While Lipscomb represents the work of the Quartet as of largely historical significance, my paper defends what I take to be Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman's position that their legacy is very much a living one, containing insights that are not just of enduring relevance, but can transform how we see ourselves and how we do philosophy. For Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman, the key idea shared by the members of the Quartet is to place the concept of life at the centre of philosophical attention. This commitment has at least four dimensions: (i) an interest in the ordinary; (ii) a focus on virtue, goodness and human flourishing; (iii) an affirmation of our animal nature; (iv) recognition of the normative landscape that structures our lives. I try to bring out the philosophical significance of these themes in a way relevant to the philosophical elucidation of education.

Interrupting the conversation: Donald MacKinnon, wartime tutor of Anscombe, Midgley, Murdoch and Foot

“…As David Bakhurst puts it (this issue), ‘As soon as the concept of life is brought to centre stage, then philosophical attention must alight on education if only because education is so critical to the human lifeform. No account of the character of a human life can fail to countenance the transformative power of education’ (Bakhurst, 2022, p. x).…”

Foundations of Marxism and Ilyenkovian Contributions: “The Ambulance of Theory Arrived on the Scene Much Too Late”

“…), which in turn signify their complementarity, in fact, their fundamental unity: both are expressions of the inhumane circumstances humanity has been subjected to; the two are simply the two sides of the coin of the capitalist relations of production meaning that as much as the dichotomy between the poles is real as much 1. The problem that Ilyenkov puts before himself resembles the one, which, according to Bakhurst (2022), the "Oxford Quartet" (Anscombe, Murdoch, Foot, and Midgley) had set to tackle, namely "the positivist orthodoxy" that rigidly distinguishes fact from value on the basis of the "attendant thesis that value judgements are merely expressions of attitudes we freely choose to adopt, and hence that notions of moral truth and objectivity are metaphysical nonsense" (814). Both Ilyenkov and the Quartet "resolutely oppose to scientism, reductionism and narrow empiricism" while addressing "the need to defend science as something more than just another species of opinion-a stance familiar from the protestations of climate change deniers, vaccine sceptics and the like" (Ibid., 821).…”