{"product_id":"metaphysical-animals-hardcover","title":"METAPHYSICAL ANIMALS (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cb\u003eA 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In \u003ci\u003eMetaphysical Animals, \u003c\/i\u003ea 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.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNeither 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 \u003ci\u003elife\u003c\/i\u003e. We are metaphysical animals, they realized, creatures that can question their very being. \u003ci\u003eWho am I? What is freedom? What is human goodness?\u003c\/i\u003e The answers we give, they believed, shape what we will become.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWritten with expertise and flair, \u003ci\u003eMetaphysical Animals \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.","brand":"Mac Cumhaill, Clare","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52337279598866,"sku":"9780385545709","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0270\/9238\/5846\/files\/6795343482325_81cee351-4b1e-4818-9c4a-8fb408f30faf.jpg?v=1780439230","url":"https:\/\/hbswarehousesale.com\/products\/metaphysical-animals-hardcover","provider":"Harvard Book Store Warehouse Sale","version":"1.0","type":"link"}