The Women Are Up to Something
How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics
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Narrated by:
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Michael Butler Murray
About this listen
On the cusp of the Second World War, four women went to Oxford to begin their studies: a fiercely brilliant Catholic convert; a daughter of privilege longing to escape her stifling upbringing; an ardent Communist and aspiring novelist with a list of would-be lovers as long as her arm; and a quiet, messy lover of newts and mice who would become a great public intellectual of our time. They became lifelong friends. At the time, only a handful of women had ever made lives in philosophy. But when Oxford's men were drafted in the war, everything changed.
As Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch labored to make a place for themselves in a male-dominated world, as they made friendships and families, and as they drifted toward and away from each other, they never stopped insisting that some lives are better than others. They argued that courage and discernment and justice—and love—are the heart of a good life.
This book presents the first sustained engagement with these women's contributions: with the critique and the alternative they framed. Drawing on a cluster of recently opened archives and extensive correspondence and interviews with those who knew them best, Benjamin Lipscomb traces the lives and ideas of four friends who gave us a better way to think about ethics, and ourselves.
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What listeners say about The Women Are Up to Something
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-12-22
What’s not to like!
Maybe I am a tad biased due to my special interest being Virtue theory and the four women Lipscomb discusses. However, I really do think this book is one everyone who has an interest in philosophy should read. It is very rare that these four women are discussed in general, let alone within in their field and therefore I really do think the story of Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch is one everyone should know about - especially if you are someone who only reads western philosophy written by the same four men.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- JCM
- 12-06-24
Interesting people, less interesting book
I only realised about three-quarters of the way through that this wasn't the joint biography of Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot and Elizabeth Anscombe I thought it was. The one I'd seen reviewed - covering the same four philosophers (about whom I knew next to nothing before this) was Metaphysical Animals, by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman.
Having "read" this, I'm firmly convinced that these four women were interesting and worth more attention, so that *other* joint biography is still on my to read list.
The other reason is that this book - while good on the lives and friendships of these four - was far less good on their actual thinking and contributions to philosophy. It's no doubt in part due to having gone for the audiobook version (as it was part of Audible's free catalogue), but I genuinely couldn't tell you one single fundamental idea for any of them, other than that Anscombe was anti-abortion due to her Catholicism.
So, as a biography of four individuals, it kinda works - I now know the outline of their lives. But as an introduction to their intellectual lives, and as a call for them to be reassessed and admitted to the cannon of great 20th century philosophers? Another book is needed. I'm hoping that Metaphysical Animals does a better job.
Finally, a pet audiobook peeve: Why get an American narrator for a book about British people, set almost entirely in Britain? The mispronunciations got increasingly grating the longer the book went on.
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