Mary Midgley: Biography Of This Philosopher Of Ethics
Jane Goodall (1984) herself, who has dedicated her life to the study of chimpanzees, recognized the importance of Mary Midgley in the history of the study of animal behavior and the development of their rights. The first book of the latter, Best and man: The roots of Human Naturewritten in 1978 when Midgley was over fifty years old, represents the pioneering work in this sense, where the philosopher reflects on the similarities in animal behavior and human behavior.
In this biography of Mary Midgley we are going to get a little closer to the figure of this important thinker who shared studies with some of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century and who has become a reference in the field.
Brief biography of Mary Midgley, the philosopher of animal ethics
In his memoirs, The owl of Minervapublished in 2005 (when the author was no less than eighty-six years old), Mary Midgley acknowledges that it was reading Konrad Lorenz’s book King’s Solomon Ring which led her to study animal behavior. It was the 1950s, and Midgley had already built a significant career as a philosophy professor, but she had not yet written any books. Starting with Best and Man, he would begin to stand out as a specialist in morality and animal rights
Early years in the English countryside
In fact, Midgley adored animals since she was little, and their world was a subject that had always attracted her. Born in Dulwich, east London, in 1919, her family soon moved to Cambridge and later to Greenford, Middlesex, where her father, Tom Scrutton, began practicing in a country rectory.
Mary confesses in her memoirs that she had few or no memories of the houses in London and Cambridge. But the Greenford house, to which the Scruttons (Mary’s maiden name) move in 1924, is another matter. Mary remembers childhood games in the garden with her brother Hugh, and the absolutely country life she led in those days.
Without a doubt, this rural life soon put her in contact with animals, which we have already mentioned that she loved from a very young age. This, in combination with the love of science that her mother, Lesley, gave to her children, resulted in a girl with a restless and curious character, always willing to explore and learn.
The Oxford Quartet
Mary’s first studies, as she herself remembers in her memoirs, were taught by a governess , who taught several local children in the dining room of his house. She later enrolled at Downe House School, where she first read the Greek philosophers, who greatly impressed her.
But it is perhaps in her youth at Somerville College (Oxford), where Mary made the most intense use of her time as a student, because there she not only studied the classics, but also became friends with three other women who, Like her, they were destined to carve out a niche for themselves in English philosophy: Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), who in addition to being a philosopher was an excellent novel writer, Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001) and Philippa Foot (1920-2010). Their friendship in those formative years was so solid that she began to know them as The Oxford Quartet.
The contributions they made between them and the undeniable mutual influence have meant that, in recent years, these four philosophers are spoken of as a philosophical school. What do these great thinkers have in common? All of them developed their work mainly after the Second World War, and also based their works on ethics and morality, especially on topics that revolve around good and evil and the dilemma involved in choosing the right path. However, from this point on, each of them directed her steps towards different objectives. In Midgley’s case, His course consisted of ethics related to animal rights and the study of their behavior
At the University of Reading, where she taught after the end of the war, Mary met her future husband, the philosopher Geoffrey Midgley, whom she married in 1950. In 1964, the University of Newcastle offered her a position at the philosophy department, which she immediately accepts. Ella mary ella has built a career as a teacher, but she has not yet published any books.
Finally, as late as 1978 (Mary is almost sixty years old), her first work was published, the aforementioned Best and Man, which, according to her, will be the root from which all the branches of her philosophy emerge. A work that took a while to appear but that, nevertheless, will begin a very prolific period for the author. In 1983 she appears Animals and Why They Matter; The following year, he publishes Wickedness. A philosophical essay and, in 1994, one of his best-known works: The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom and Morality.
In his books and articles, Midgley makes an acid criticism of the great pretensions of science Her language is usually clear and accessible, since, for her, philosophy had to be, above all, something practical and available to everyone; something like a social service. To achieve this, the philosopher did not hesitate to participate in television and radio programs, as well as publish numerous articles in which she expresses all of her ideas.
Midgley’s latest book, What is Philosophy For?was published shortly before her ninety-ninth birthday, which gives us an idea of the tireless activity of this thinker and her commitment to philosophy and ethics.
