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Metaphysical Animals

How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

Clare Mac Cumhaill Rachael Wiseman

$35

Paperback

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English
Chatto & Windus
01 February 2022
'A wonderful, important and also a necessary book, which sets the records straight... and celebrates a remarkable quartet of women thinkers' Peter Conradi
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*AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
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*Picked as a Guardian read for summer 2022
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' A

splendidly entertaining book, fizzing with character and incident' Spectator

'Invigorating... told with terrific fluency and humour' Sunday Times

'In philosophy, one must start from scratch - & it takes a very long time to reach scratch'

Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot and Elizabeth Anscombe were philosophy students at Oxford during the Second World War when most male undergraduates (and many tutors) were conscripted. Taught by refugee scholars, women and conscientious objectors, the four friends developed a philosophy that could respond to the war's darkest revelations.

How, they asked, do we find our way through the devastation of what we have created? Not even the great thinkers of the past or the logical innovators and Existentialists of the early twentieth century could make sense of this new human reality. So, in search of an answer, the four friends set out to bring philosophy back to life.

Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a vivid blend of philosophy and recovered history - bringing back the women who shared ideas, as well as sofas, shoes and even lovers. Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman show how from the disorder and despair of the war, four brilliant friends reinvigorated philosophy and created a way of ethical thinking that remains with us today.

By:   ,
Imprint:   Chatto & Windus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 155mm,  Spine: 30mm
Weight:   635g
ISBN:   9781784743291
ISBN 10:   1784743291
Pages:   384
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  ELT Advanced ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Reviews for Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

Joyful... These four are enlivening companions... four glorious heroines, confident and curious, focused on the world and not on themselves * Spectator * Irresistible... Highly evocative... Bring[s] to life an important episode in intellectual history, and [has] made me again grateful that I was for a time a contemporary of these unforgettable women -- Thomas Nagel * London Review of Books * Lively ... This fascinating work of historico-logico-feminism shows... how women fought their way on to the world stage of philosophy and turned its spotlight away from an analytical desert on to what was really important - moral clarity, wisdom and truth -- John Walsh * Sunday Times * The narrative is of four brilliant women finding their voices, opposing received wisdom, and developing an alternative picture of human beings and their place in the world... To read this story is to be reminded...that the life of the mind can be as intense and eventful as friendship itself -- Anil Gomes * Guardian * The heart of this book resides in the friendship among the four women and the ways they supported and influenced one another... The biographical material in Metaphysical Animals is evocative and sparkling, sketching each woman's character with a novelists mastery of detail -- Laura Miller * New York Times *


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