Essential Mary Midgley

Mary Midgely (1919-2018)was a moral philosopher and the author of many books, most recently The Myths We Live By.

• Foreword, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Part One – The Roots of Human Nature, 1. Have We a Nature?, 2. Animals and the Problem of Evil, 3. Speech and Other Excellences, 4. The Problem of Natural Evil, 5. The Elusiveness of Responsibility, 6. Selves and Shadows, 7. Emotion, Emotiveness and Sentimentality, 8. Equality and Outer Darkness, 9. Is a Dolphin a Person?, Part Two – Philosophizing Out in the World, 10. Philosophical Plumbing, 11. Wisdom and Contemplation, 12. The Withdrawal of Moral Philosophy, 13. Escaping from Solitude, 14. The Human Heart and Other Organs, 15. On Trying Out One’s New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer, Part Three – The Myths of Science, 16. Salvation and the Academics, 17. Evolutionary Dramas, 18. The Irresistible Escalator, 19. The Service of Self and the Service of Kali, 20. Biotechnology and the Yuk Factor, 21. The Supernatural Engineer, 22. The Remarkable Masculine Birth Of Time, Part Four – Reason and Imagination, 23. The Sources of Thought, 24. Atomistic Visions: The Quest for Permanence, 25. Putting Our Selves Together Again, 26. A Plague on Both Their Houses, Part Five – Gaian Thinking: Putting it All Together, 27. Individualism and the Concept of Gaia, 28. Gods and Goddesses: The Role of Wonder, 29. Why there is Such a Thing as Society, 30. The Unity of Life, Notes, Bibliography, Index

'She has, perhaps, the sharpest perception of any living thinker of the dangerous extremism that lurks behind so much contemporary scientistic discourse.' - Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times'One of the sharpest critical pens in the West.' - Times Literary Supplement'The value of Mary's thinking is that she questions the assumptions and investigates what she calls 'philosophical plumbing' and the role of different ideas in helping map our world...Having the whole of Mary's thinking summarised in one volume is enormously valuable, enabling the reader to access the essence of her approach.' – The Science and Medical Network Review