Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman in Beshara Magazine

Keith Hammond reviews a book about the experience of four remarkable women in wartime Oxford

This book is about Iris Murdoch [/], Mary Midgley (nee Stratton), Philippa Foot [/] (nee Bosanquet) and Elizabeth Anscombe [/], who were all undergraduates at the same time in Oxford during the Second World War. After their studies, all four went on to have a major influence on philosophical thought in the second half of the twentieth century. Although this book is not about their later impact, it does propose that their Oxford years were in some way a determinant of their subsequent success. As undergraduates, they demonstrated that they had fierce intellects which they exercised in their own way. What is really fascinating in this study, however, is the account of the incredible friendship they established in these early years, which lasted for the whole of their lives. FOR MORE