Midgley on Moral Philosophy and Ethics

This is the first volume to publish on Mary Midgley’s moral philosophy and meta-philosophy. The volume will aid researchers and educators by connecting Midgley’s moral thought, which has been intellectually isolated, to various philosophical traditions (e.g., animal ethics and twentieth century naturalism) and historical interlocutors (like the Wartime Quartet, Peter Singer and Cora Diamond).

The volume brings together newly commissioned essay’s on Midgley’s meta-philosophy, moral philosophy, and ethics – interconnected areas in Midgley’s philosophy that are under-represented in scholarship to date. Each chapter is written by emerging and prominent scholars of Midgley. Organised thematically the first four essays consider Midgley’s writing on moral philosophy and meta-ethics. The following four essays concern topics in Midgley’s applied ethics: animal and environmental ethics, genome editing, bioethics, and the Gaia hypothesis, respectively. Finally, the volume concludes with three essays on Midgley’s meta-philosophy (which is linked to her moral philosophy), with a variety of discussions about Midgley conception of what both philosophy and the philosopher are, and how philosophy relates to other disciplines.

This book is essential reading for scholars of ethics and moral philosophy and of twentieth century British philosophy. It will also be of interest to researchers of philosophical methods and the philosophy of science.