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Owl of Minerva - A Memoir (Hardcover)
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Owl of Minerva - A Memoir (Hardcover)
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"Charming, interesting, thought-provoking and a great read."
Rosalind Hursthouse
The daughter of a pacifist rector who answered "No!" when his
congregation asked him "Is everything in the bible true?," perhaps
Mary Midgley was destined to become a philosopher. Yet few would
have thought this inquisitive, untidy, nature-loving child would
become "one of the sharpest critical pens in the west."
This is her remarkable story. Probably the only philosopher to have
been in Vienna on the eve of its invasion by Nazi Germany in 1938
and dance in Trafalgar Square on VE day seven year later, she
studied philosophy at Oxford in the same year as Iris Murdoch,
Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, all of whom became close
friends. Midgley tells us in vivid and humorous fashion how they
cut a swathe through the arid landscape of 1950s British
philosophy, writing and arguing - often with each other - about the
grand themes of character, beauty and the meaning of rudeness while
the spectral figure of Ludwig Wittgenstein hovered in the
background.
She also charts the highs and lows of philosophy and academia in
Britain. On joining the Reading philosophy department on 400 a year
in 1949, she doubled its staff complement. But her many years at
Newcastle University - where Mike Brearley, who later captained
England at cricket, also used to teach - were rewarded with the
closure of the philosophy department in the 1980s.
The mother of three children, her journey is also one of a woman
who in the 1950s and 1960s was fighting to combine a professional
career with raising a family. In startling contrast to many of the
academic stars of her generation, we learn that Midgley nearly
became a novelistand started writing philosophy only when in her
fifties, suggesting that Minerva's owl really does fly at dusk.
Plainly told like her philosophy, this is an elegiac and moving
account of friendships found and lost, bitter philosophical battles
and of a profound love of teaching all too rarely acknowledged
today.
General
Imprint: |
Routledge
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
September 2005 |
First published: |
November 2005 |
Authors: |
Mary Midgley
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
234 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-415-36788-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
Philosophy >
General
Books >
Philosophy >
General
|
LSN: |
0-415-36788-3 |
Barcode: |
9780415367882 |
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