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    The ‘Ought’ of Flourishing in Elizabeth Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ and Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness


    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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