Science and the Self ─ Animals, Evolution, and Ethics: Essays in Honour of Mary Midgley

Mary Midgley is one of the most important moral philosophers working today. Over the last thirty years, her writings have informed debates concerning animals, the environment and evolutionary theory. The invited essays in this volume offer critical reflections upon Midgley’s work and further developments of her ideas. The contributors include many of the leading commentators on her work, including distinguished figures from the disciplines of philosophy, biology, and ethology. The range of topics includes the moral status of animals, the concept of wickedness, science and mythology, the Gaia Hypothesis, Midgley’s relationship to modern moral philosophy, and her work with Irish Murdoch. It also includes the first complete bibliography of Midgley’s writings. The volume is the first major study of its kind and brings together contributions from the many disciplines which Midgley’s work has influenced. It provides a clear account of the themes and significance of her work and its implications for ongoing debates about our understanding of our place within the world.

Ian James Kidd is an Addison Wheeler Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Durham. His work ranges over epistemology, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of science and includes a number of papers on the cognitive and cultural authority of science, intellectual virtues, and the nature of a religious life.

Liz McKinnell is a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Durham. She works on areas in applied ethics and political philosophy including environmental ethics, the moral status of animals and intergenerational justice. She has published on moral obligations to the dead, and on connections between environmental ethics and the philosophy of cognition and biology.

.