Speaker: Rachael Wiseman is a Reader in Philosophy at University of Liverpool. She writes on ethics and philosophy of mind and action, and is an associate editor at the British Journal for the History of Philosophy. Along with Clare Mac Cumhaill, she is the author of Metaphysical Animals: How four women brought philosophy back to life and directs the website www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk.
Brief Synopsis:Â This talk tells the story of four incredible women philosophers who met at Oxford during World War II and who developed their philosophy in response to the practical problems faced by a generation coming to terms with the holocaust, atomic weapons, and accelerating social and technological change. Central to the philosophy of Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Elizabeth Anscombe, is the idea that we are metaphysical animals. This talk will explain and explore that idea, while also presenting a hidden history of twentieth century intellectual culture, one to which the contributions of women and refugee scholars are central.
Full talk synopsis:
Speaker:Â Â Â Â Â Â Dr Rachael Wiseman
Subject:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Are you a Metaphysical Animal?
The third meeting of the 2025-2026 season featured Dr Rachael Wiseman, Reader in Philosophy at University of Liverpool. Along with Clare Mac Cumhaill she is the author of Metaphysical Animals: How four women brought philosophy back to life. The talk was entitled ‘Are we metaphysical animals?’ Dr Wiseman argued, in a way pioneered by Mary Midgley, that we are just another species of animal, albeit one that can ponder its place in the scheme of things other animals don’t do. The talk then went through the different interpretations of this insight by four women who rose to prominence in the years after the Second World War. Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch and Mary Midgley. Each of these women had a different area of interest in philosophy and each advanced different responses to our status as metaphysical animals. Anscombe took the road of formal Catholicism. Iris Murdoch moved toward a position not far removed from Neoplatonism, while Foot and Midgley were, broadly understood non-religious humanists.
The unusual circumstances of the war provided the backdrop for these women to break through and achieve prominence. While the men were away fighting or in intelligence work against the Nazis, the women had more space in the universities to express ideas without being talked down by the men. By the time the men returned, the women were established. Each one went on to significant careers. Iris Murdoch soon tired of the formal setting of academic philosophy and found her niche in novels, some of which stand as landmarks in post-war literature. Anscombe’s work was the most obscure and has lasted less well, notwithstanding its brilliance. Foot’s work on moral philosophy, most notably the Trolley Problem, has ensured her a lasting legacy. And Mary Midgley, the wittiest and most caustic of the group, took on the mantle of what the nineteenth century called being a ‘smiter of humbug.’
In their different ways all four women advanced variations of moral realism, the idea that morality does represent some real state in the world and not simply the name we give to our preferences. And all four saw philosophy as a form of intellectual plumbing. As we call plumbers in to fix problems with our piping, so philosophers have a role in fixing breaks and tears in our conceptual infrastructure.