Regan, Michael James (2016) The ‘Ought’ of Flourishing in Elizabeth Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ and Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

Elizabeth Anscombe embarked on arguably one of her first forays into moral philosophy in a landmark article, published in 1958 at age thirty-nine, entitled ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’. The work can be read as the writing of a devout Catholic seeking (sceptically), for those with no religion, a coherent and practicable idea of how one ought to be so as to be fit to flourish—to, essentially, live well—as a human being. Her shift in focus away from the prevailing, yet (what she deemed) faulty, ethical theories of her day towards a virtue-based ethical naturalism (which, I argue, can be extrapolated from her notion of ‘brute facts’) is the starting point of what has come to be known as the Aretaic Turn. Philippa Foot, a friend and colleague of Anscombe, embarked on arguably one of her finest forays into moral philosophy in a milestone book, published in 2001 at age eighty (a month after Anscombe’s death), entitled Natural Goodness. The work can be seen as the writing of a card-carrying atheist seeking (determinedly), for those with no religion, a coherent and practicable idea of how one ought to be so as to be capable of flourishing as a human being. Her shift in focus away from the prevalent, yet (what she saw as) flawed, ethical theories of her time towards a virtue-based ethical naturalism (which, I contend, can also be extrapolated from Anscombe’s notion of ‘brute facts’) is a highpoint of the Aretaic Turn. This thesis argues that, in terms of developing her ethical naturalsim, Foot’s Natural Goodness, although a work justifying much merit in its own right, owes a great deal to Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ and that, in terms of her developed ethical naturalism, an examination of the concepts of belonging and vulnerability, which I provide, would be beneficial.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	Elizabeth Anscombe; Modern Moral Philosophy; Philippa Foot; Natural Goodness;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Philosophy
Item ID:	13649
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2020 12:02
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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