Beast and Man (1978) Animals and Why They Matter (1983) Evolution as a Religion (1985) Science as Salvation (1992)
Spouse
Geoffrey Midgley
(m. 1950)
Era
Contemporary philosophy
Region
Western philosophy
School
Analytic philosophy[1]
Main interests
Moral philosophy, animal rights, philosophy of science, ethology, evolution
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Mary Beatrice Midgley (néeScrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018)[2] was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast and Man (1978), when she was in her late fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984), The Ethical Primate (1994), Evolution as a Religion (1985), and Science as Salvation (1992). She was awarded honorary doctorates by Durham and Newcastle universities. Her autobiography, The Owl of Minerva, was published in 2005.
Midgley strongly opposed reductionism and scientism, and argued against any attempt to make science a substitute for the humanities. She wrote extensively about what she thought philosophers can learn from nature, particularly from animals. Midgley insisted that humans ought to be understood as first and foremost, a kind of animal. Several of her books and articles discussed philosophical ideas appearing in popular science, including those of Richard Dawkins. She also wrote in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis. The Guardian described her as a fiercely combative philosopher and the UK's "foremost scourge of 'scientific pretension'".[3]
^ abMary Midgley, The Essential Mary Midgley, Routledge, 2005, p. 143.
^ abMotyka, John (15 October 2018). "Mary Midgley, 99, Moral Philosopher for the General Reader, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2018. She was born Mary Scrutton on Sept. 13, 1919, in Dulwich, England, to Lesley (Hay) and Tom Scrutton.
^Brown, Andrew (13 January 2001). "Mary, Mary, quite contrary". The Guardian.
Mary Beatrice Midgley (née Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University...
fullness of time, do the same." This point also was made by the philosopher MaryMidgley: "The same thing happened to AJ Ayer, she says, but he spent the rest...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Geraldine James (b. 1950), actress Catherine, Princess of Wales (b. 1982) MaryMidgley (1919–2018), philosopher Rosemary Murray (1913–2004), first woman to...
energy, forces, and the spacetime continuum; some philosophers, such as MaryMidgley, suggest that the concept of "matter" is elusive and poorly defined....
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Guinea. Midgley left the Army in 1945 and returned to Queensland, where he became a woodworker and furniture maker. He married his wife Mary in 1942,...
Unity of Nature, Imperial College Press. MaryMidgley (2007), Earthy realism: the meaning of Gaia MaryMidgley (2001), Gaia: the next big idea Lawrence...
2015) 1918 – Dick Haymes, Argentinian actor and singer (d. 1980) 1919 – MaryMidgley, English philosopher and author (d. 2018) 1919 – George Weidenfeld, Baron...
philosophers of science such as Karl Popper, and philosophers such as MaryMidgley, the later Hilary Putnam, and Tzvetan Todorov to describe (for example)...
Award in the Vegetarian Books category in 1996. In 2021, Paul, Stella, and Mary McCartney updated and veganized a number of Linda's vegetarian recipes, and...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
at the university include A. J. Ayer, Elizabeth Anscombe, Paul Grice, MaryMidgley, Iris Murdoch, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, Robert Nozick, Onora O'Neill...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
at 38, his "canonical works" came out in his fifties. In philosophy MaryMidgley had her first book when she was 56. Edmond Hoyle wrote a booklet on whist...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
in the Fight Against Stupidity. The first winner was the philosopher MaryMidgley. Each year since, there has been an award ceremony at Conway Hall, including...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Passionate Summer (1959), then she had a support part in MGM's The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). McKenna and Travers were also in Two Living, One Dead (1961)...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
Christian Friedrich Krause John Lawrence Charles R. Magel Jean Meslier MaryMidgley J. Howard Moore José Ferrater Mora Leonard Nelson Edward Nicholson Siobhan...
were brainwashed; Prof John Newson of the University of Nottingham; MaryMidgley. Reported by Bea Campbell, directed by Claire Walmsley 12 June The Movement...
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