Mary Midgley

Mary Midgley, née Scrutton, (b. 13 September 1919) is a British moral philosopher. She was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and is best known for her popular works on religion, science and ethics. She strongly opposes reductionist and scientistic philosophies and is especially concerned with attempts, as she sees it, to make science function as a substitute for the humanities, a role for which she claims it is wholy inadequate. Midgley has famously sparred with Richard Dawkins over selfish genes and memes and has also written in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia theory.

Publications

Books:

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• Beast And Man: The Roots of Human Nature 1978 (revised edition 1995) Routledge ISBN 0415289874
• Heart and Mind: The Varieties of Moral Experience 1981 Routledge ISBN 0415304490
• Animals And Why They Matter 1983 University of Georgia Press ISBN 0820320412
• Wickedness 1984 Routledge ISBN 0415253985
• Evolution As A Religion 1985 Routledge (reprinted with new introduction 2002) ISBN 0415278333
• Wisdom, Information and Wonder: What Is Knowledge For? 1989 Routledge ISBN 0415028302
• Science As Salvation: A Modern Myth and Its Meaning 1992 Routledge ISBN 0415107733
• The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom and Morality 1994 Routledge ISBN 041513224X
• Utopias, Dolphins and Computers: Problems of Philosophical Plumbing 2000 Routledge ISBN 0415133785
• Science And Poetry 2001 Routledge ISBN 0415276322
• Myths We Live By 2003 Routledge ISBN 0415340772
• The Owl of Minerva: A Memoir 2005 Routledge ISBN 0415367883 Midgley's autobiography

Pamphlets:

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• Gaia: The Next Big Idea 2001 Demos publications ISBN 1841800759 (Summary and link to download complete text)

Selected Articles:

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• 1979 Gene-Juggling, In Philosophy Vol 54, no 210, pp. 439-458
• 1983 Selfish Genes and Social Darwinism, In Philosophy Vol 58, no 225, pp. 365-377
• 2002 How real are you?, In Think. A Periodical of the Royal Institute of Philosophy