Mary Midgley - by Gregory McElwain (Paperback)

About the Book

For over forty years, Mary Midgley made a forceful case for the relevance and importance of philosophy. With characteristic wit and wisdom, she drew special attention to the ways in which our thought influences our everyday lives. Her wide-ranging explorations of human nature and the self; our connections with animals and the natural world; and the complexities of morality, gender, science, and religion all contributed to her reputation as one of the most expansive and compelling moral philosophers of the twentieth century. Mary Midgley: An Introduction is the first substantive introduction to Midgley's influential philosophy on the human condition. This volume, supplemented by original interviews with Midgley herself, outlines the concepts and perspectives for which she is best known and illuminates the philosophical problems to which she devoted her life's work.--

Book Synopsis

For over 40 years, Mary Midgley made a forceful case for the relevance and importance of philosophy. With characteristic wit and wisdom, she drew special attention to the ways in which our thought influences our everyday lives. Her wide-ranging explorations of human nature and the self; our connections with animals and the natural world; and the complexities of morality, gender, science, and religion all contributed to her reputation as one of the most expansive and compelling moral philosophers of the twentieth century.

Mary Midgley: An Introduction is the first substantive introduction to Midgley's influential philosophy on the human condition.

This volume, supplemented by original interviews with Midgley, outlines the concepts and perspectives for which she is best known and illuminates the philosophical problems to which she devoted her life's work.

Review Quotes

"McElwain became a friend as well as an interpreter to Midgley over the decade he spent on this project. Midgley is compulsively quotable--a crucial skill for a popular philosopher and one of the delights of McElwain's book are the many quotations he includes, not only from across her enormous oeuvre, but also from years of interviews conducted at her home outside Newcastle." - Environmental Values

"An original and imaginative philosopher, Midgley (1919-2018) wrote with passion, wit, and clarity on a wide range of subjects ... This introduction to Midgley's thought is admirably clear, accessible, wide-ranging, and sympathetic ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, general readers." -CHOICE

"McElwain offers a clear and lucid exploration of the philosophical concerns and contributions of the late Mary Midgley. Balancing depth and breadth, he engages and connects her views on ethical, environmental, feminist, and epistemological themes. Midgley emerges as a philosopher acutely sensitive to the possibilities for integration between the many aspects of human existence and the perils of their fragmentation. We should take from this book a richer understanding of Midgley and a deeper vision of the the role of philosophy in caring for ourselves and our world." --Ian James Kidd, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Nottingham, UK

"Mary Midgley is the ideal philosopher for those who believe nothing is simple, that human nature is both bestial and cultural, that gender is neither a construct nor biological destiny, that we are one with nature yet keen to be separate, that we are selfish and social at the same time. We can only love a philosopher who respects contradictions and embraces our animal nature. She will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest we have ever had." --Frans de Waal, C.H. Candler Professor, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

"Mary Midgley deserves to be recognized as one of the most interesting and individual philosophical minds of the twentieth century. McElwain's book captures the personality of a thinker overflowing with ideas, buzzing with excitement and on a mission. Midgley retained the sense of wonder and mischief that characterizes childhood into her late 90s. She transforms that wonder into wisdom though her deep knowledge of philosophical method and history, and her serious study of human and animal nature. For Midgley, philosophers must be cartographers for their time, and this book provides those uninitiated into her complex and systematic philosophy with an invaluable map." --Rachael Wiseman, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Liverpool, UK

About the Author

Gregory S. McElwain is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at The College of Idaho, USA.

Mary Midgley was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University, UK. One of the leading moral philosophers of the 20th century, Midgley has written extensively on human nature, science, ethics, animals, and the environment. Her books include Wickedness (2001), Beast and Man (2002), Heart and Mind (2003), Animals and Why They Matter (2006), Are You an Illusion? (2014), and What is Philosophy For? (Bloomsbury, 2018).