This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

I was expecting a bit more philosophy in this book, but I think that was my bad haha. It's more of a cultural look at the lives of four women. Unfortunately, I found it to be dry, and broken up into so many fragments it was difficult to stay engaged. Intriguing premise, though! Made me want to read a biography of Iris Murdoch.

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#MetaphysicalAnimals and SWIPE => to see my animal

A heartfelt thanks to @doubledaypress for gifting me this beautiful history the women who brought philosophy back to life.

I enjoyed Metaphysical Animals's feel of conversation, debate, and growth. This is my first time reading a history of various philosophical thinkers instead of the views of one. I was struck by the unveiling of new principles within the backdrop of WW2. Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman did a wonderful job of integrating the women's journal entries and historical events to their philosophical growth. I absolutely loved the images and journal scribbles included in the text.

This text also changed my perception of well-known philosophical stories by their relation to various groups of thought. For example, my understanding of the parable of the cave in relation to this time period's thought provided a strong foundation for the new ideas grown.

This is a story for Oxford lovers. I recently visited Oxford last month and had a literary tour of the college town. I wish I had read this text before my travels so I'd had a better idea of the different colleges and noteworthy sights!

Cumhail and Wiseman provide a list of players at the front of the text. This was a smart decision as real life doesn't limit itself to a small list of characters which readers can easily follow. However, I was confused at times by the choice of using first and last, only first, or only last names.

The use of the main four women's first names did make them feel more intimate to readers, but it caused me some confusion when referencing others with similar names. At times it seemed like the use of their first name keyed my brain to think all first names (not lasts) were important, so I found myself rereading names often. There is also something to be said about the tone of a piece that refers to the key women with first names, but the men with last names. I think I would have preferred all to be referenced by last name—especially after the women graduated with Firsts.

Metaphysical Animals is a sort of origin story of four female philosophers who met as undergraduates at Oxford in the 1930s: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch. The book focuses mainly on the 1930s to the 1950s, following the four from their undergraduate years to the start of their professional careers.

Murdoch is already well-known as a novelist and as the subject of a Hollywood biopic starring Kate Winslet and Judi Dench. Foot's name is not so well-known, but the so-called "trolley problem" that she originated has become famous in recent years thanks to the TV show The Good Place. Anscombe and Midgley are still largely unknown outside of philosophy departments. This book serves as a welcome introduction to the lives and moral/ethical philosophies of these four impressive thinkers.

The authors use as a framing device Oxford's awarding of an honorary degree to Harry Truman in 1956. Anscombe objected to this because of Truman's authorization of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and she tried to persuade the dons not to award the degree. She failed, but she drew international attention and the admiration of others who shared her view. The main part of the book begins and ends with this incident, illustrating the commitment of Anscombe and the others to the real-life importance of moral philosophy.

The argument of the book is that these four women developed their moral philosophies in opposition to the philosophy of logical positivism as presented by figures such as A.J. Ayer (in some ways the central antagonist of the book). According to Ayer and his followers, only that which was empirically and logically verifiable could serve as the basis for philosophy; all traditional metaphysical philosophy, such as that which argued for an objective but non-empirical basis for morality, was nonsensical, obsolete, and should be discarded.

Then World War 2 happened, and Ayer and the other male proponents of logical positivism went off to war, leaving an Oxford filled with women as well as older men and refugees who could not serve (such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose pupil, translator, and editor Anscombe became). Our four protagonists, temporarily free to develop their own views now that the men weren't using up all the oxygen, began to develop a moral philosophy that challenged Ayer's position. Reports of the atrocities of Nazi death camps as well as the use of atomic bombs against Japan further galvanized the four women to find an objective basis for saying why such actions are wrong. In light of these events, it was just not good enough to relegate morality to mere subjective, emotional preference, as the logical positivists were doing. After the war ended, the women continued along this path.

The book mixes biography and philosophy, with perhaps a bit more of the former, showing how each woman's life led her to develop her particular way of addressing the problem. Although each woman came to be known for her work in moral philosophy, each one's thinking differed from the others' in notable ways, and Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman deftly portray the particular fixations of each, in relation to the social and cultural turmoil that surrounded them. The authors seem to regard Anscombe as the greatest of the four, but all four are vividly and sympathetically depicted.

As already noted, the book serves as kind of an origin story for the four philosophers; the main part of the book follows them only to the 1950s, when they were just beginning their careers. Their work after that is touched on only briefly in the final "Afterwards" chapter. As a result, their most important work is not described in detail here. This is a bit of a disappointment, but it is understandable, as an adequate presentation of each woman's mature work would probably have doubled the length of the book, at least. Another slight defect is that the book begins with a preface that summarizes the argument of the book, as if readers need to have the argument spoon-fed to them in advance. I recommend skipping that preface (or at least saving it for later) and starting with the chapter about the Truman incident. Otherwise, the book is excellent: the biographical content is vividly narrated, and the philosophy is described and summarized as clearly as possible given the demands of brevity (although it does help to have some general knowledge of philosophy before reading).

Overall, for readers interested in philosophy or even just this cultural period, this is an enjoyable and rewarding book about four fascinating women whose philosophy deserves more attention. It will probably make you want to read more by these thinkers, and it might even make you want to "do" philosophy!

(This is a review of a complimentary uncorrected proof provided by the publisher.)

Metaphysical Animals is an engaging, moving account of the lives and thought of four women -- Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch -- in the mid-twentieth century. It paints a moving portrait of friendship and draws provocative connections between lived experience and philosophy. The reader will come away deeply impressed by the intelligence and courage of the four main figures and with a broader, deeper understanding of the history and content of twentieth-century philosophy. The book is highly recommended to readers with an interest in philosophy, history, or the connection between them.

First, I am definitely not a philosopher, and reading this reminded me of that fact repeatedly. This book, however, is more than a discussion of philosophy; it is also about four groundbreaking women who studied at Oxford at a time when women were not exactly welcomed there. The biographical parts of the book describe life for these women as students in the late 1930s and early 1940s as England was gripped by war, and hundreds of their male classmates left. Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, and Elizabeth Anscombe broke any number of glass ceilings at Oxford, both as students and later as instructors, and they spurred one another on to greater heights along the way. Thought-provoking.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!