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Metaphysical Animals
- How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
- Narrated by: Alex Dunmore
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A vibrant portrait of four college friends—Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley—who formed a new philosophical tradition while Oxford's men were away fighting World War II.
The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In Metaphysical Animals, a pioneering group biography, Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a compelling alternative. In the mid-twentieth century Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch were philosophy students at Oxford when most male undergraduates and many tutors were conscripted away to fight in the Second World War. Together, these young women, all friends, developed a philosophy that could respond to the war’s darkest revelations.
Neither the great Enlightenment thinkers of the past, the logical innovators of the early twentieth century, or the new Existentialist philosophy trickling across the Channel, could make sense of this new human reality of limitless depravity and destructive power, the women felt. Their answer was to bring philosophy back to life. We are metaphysical animals, they realized, creatures that can question their very being. Who am I? What is freedom? What is human goodness? The answers we give, they believed, shape what we will become.
Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a lively portrait of women who shared ideas, but also apartments, clothes, and even lovers. Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman show how from the disorder and despair of the war, four brilliant friends created a way of ethical thinking that is there for us today.
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What the critics say
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker
"Absorbing. . . each of this book’s subjects produced work that, in seeking to reconnect 'human life, action and perception' with morality, remains vitally relevant."—The New Yorker
"Meticulously researched, Metaphysical Animals paints a vivid portrait of the friendship between four remarkable female philosophers."—The Wall Street Journal
“Metaphysical Animals makes impressively light-footed work of bringing philosophy in. The reader feels as if in the midst of a lively discussion over crumpets at a Lyons tearoom . . . The payoff is four glorious heroines, confident and curious, focused on the world and not themselves.”—The Spectator (U.K.)
What listeners say about Metaphysical Animals
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lindsay Flynn
- 2022-08-19
Feminist Philosopher’s will love
I loved this book. It’s a compelling snap shot of a historical and philosophical moment that highlights the unsentimental collaboration and capabilities possible by female academics at a time when sex was still immediately judged as an impediment. (If it is not still judged as such.) Some of the terminology assumes the listener has a foundation of philosophical terms, but it is easy enough to pause and cross reference definitions. Definitely worth a second or third listen.
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