The Women Are Up to Something

Four women, friends from studying at Oxford during and after the second world war, revolutionized the field of moral philosophy. At male-dominated Oxford, live issues of moral philosophy had for long been as unheard as the voices of women philosophers. Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgeley and Iris Murdoch developed their positions in distinct but overlapping ways, fortified by lasting and sustaining friendships. The difference they made brought about the single biggest change in moral philosophy for over a century, replacing arid scholasticism with rich discussions of goodness, virtue, and character. This lively and well-informed book tells us how the intertwined lives of four women philosophers also tell us the story of moral philosophy waking up after a long dogmatic slumber. It's a wonderful story which will keep any reader turning the pages. -- Julia Annas, Regents Professor Emerita, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona This is a compulsively readable book about a remarkable quartet of women who kept philosophy alive in Oxford during the second world war, and who gave it a new direction after the postwar return of the men. As a survivor of the main period of this story I can attest to the authenticity of its background, and I relished the vivid portraits of each of the heroines. It is a book which will fascinate not only those with an interest in the history of philosophy, but even more those who welcome women's major contributions to fields traditionally the preserve of men. -- Sir Anthony Kenny, Emeritus Fellow, St John's College, University of Oxford Four of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century were friends at Oxford during World War II; they were women in a field still dominated by men; and they rebelled against a picture of ethics as the play of subjective attitudes, values to be set against the hard facts of science. Benjamin Lipscomb's book about Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch is absorbing, personal, and intellectually thrilling--at once a vivid recreation of a deep philosophical friendship and a timely defence of objectivity in ethics. I wish I had written it! -- Kieran Setiya, Professor of Philosophy, MIT