Mary Midgley

Mary Midgley was a British moral philosopher who taught at Newcastle University and wrote widely about human nature, science and animals. She studied at Oxford alongside Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot and Iris Murdoch, but published her first book, Beast and Man, only in her late fifties. In it she argued that humans are animals with a real, evolved nature, and that this makes morality and culture possible rather than undermining them. Later books criticised scientism and the habit of turning scientific theories into substitute religions.

Key ideas

• Human beings are animals, and our evolved motives and needs shape what a good human life can be.
• Recognising human nature does not reduce morality to biology; instinct and reason work together.
• Science answers some questions but not all, and treating it as a complete world view is a mistake she called scientism.
• Philosophy is like plumbing: it repairs the hidden conceptual pipes that our everyday thinking depends on.
• The 'selfish gene' metaphor is misleading when it is read as a claim about human motives.

Major works

• Beast and Man (1978)
• Animals and Why They Matter (1983)
• Wickedness (1984)
• Evolution as a Religion (1985)
• Science as Salvation (1992)
• The Myths We Live By (2003)

In the Book corner

• Beast and Man 1978; revised 1995 · Intermediate
  Midgley's first book, subtitled The Roots of Human Nature, argues that human beings are animals and that this fact helps rather than…

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