Elizabeth Anscombe

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The young Anscombe

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (born March 18, 1919 in Limerick , Ireland , † January 5, 2001 in Cambridge ) (published under GEM Anscombe ) was a British philosopher who made important contributions to action theory and virtue ethics , and a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein .

Life

Elizabeth Anscombe graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford University in 1941. In her first year as an undergraduate , she converted to Catholicism .

After Wittgenstein's death in 1951, Elizabeth Anscombe became one of the three administrators of Wittgenstein's philosophical legacy, alongside Rush Rhees and GH von Wright . In this function, they were responsible for the posthumous editing and publication of a large number of notes and manuscripts with posthumous works by Wittgenstein, which she also translated into English (including the Philosophical Investigations ). From 1970 to 1986 Anscombe taught as a professor of philosophy at Cambridge University . In 1967 she was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the British Academy . In 1979 she was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Anscombe was married to Peter Geach , who also contacted Wittgenstein through Anscombe and was inspired by him. Geach was a recognized professor of philosophy and logic. Together they had three sons and four daughters. Like his wife, he converted to Catholicism.

Anscombe was known to be a staunch opponent of abortion . Even before the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae , she argued against contraception and sexual promiscuity. She was also an activist in the English pro-life movement and was arrested several times during demonstrations.

plant

After graduating from Oxford, Anscombe began postgraduate studies in Cambridge in 1942 . Here she met Wittgenstein, for whom she became one of the most famous interpreters. In 1959 she wrote an introduction to his early work, the Tractatus logico-philosophicus . Your translation of the Philosophical Investigations was for a long time the authoritative translation into English. She also translated a number of other writings from Wittgenstein.

Her only philosophical monograph, Intention (1957), is considered a classic of action theory and attempts the concept of intention theoretically on the basis of reasons that cannot be reduced to causes , which are defined by special Why? -Questions become tangible, philosophically renew the author's interpretation of Aristotle. Her essays are collected in three essay collections from 1981.

With her contributions to moral philosophy , she made a significant contribution to the modern revival of virtue ethics, which she renewed as a decidedly Catholic thinker who was methodically committed to analytical philosophy . Another focus was the philosophy of mind .

The introduction of the term “ consequentialism ” is associated with the name Anscombe . In the essay "Modern Moral Philosophy" published in 1958, she wrote:

“The denial of any distinction between foreseen and intended consequences, as far as responsibility is concerned, was not made by Sidgwick in developing any one 'method of ethics'; he made this important move on behalf of everybody and just on its own account; and I think it plausible to suggest that this move on the part of Sidgwick explains the difference between old-fashioned Utilitarianism and the consequentialism, as I name it, which marks him and every English academic moral philosopher since him. "

“The negation of any distinction between foreseen and intended consequences, as far as responsibility is concerned, was not made by Sidgwick in order to develop an ethical method; he has made the important turn from interest for everyone to his own interest; and I think it plausible to say that this turn on Sidgwick's side explains the difference between conventional utilitarianism and consequentialism, as I would call it, which characterizes him and every academic philosopher in England after him. "

Works

  • Essays , edited and translated by Katharina Nieswandt and Ulf Hlobil and with an afterword by Anselm W. Müller. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29701-8 .
  • The collected philosophical papers , Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1981 (2002 edition)
    • Vol.l: From Parmenides to Wittgenstein.
    • Vol.2: Metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.
    • Vol.3: Ethics, religion and politics.
  • Intention , Oxford: Blackwell, 1957 (new edition: Ithaca et al .: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1974).
    • Intent . Transl., Ed. u. introduced by John M. Connolly and Thomas Keutner, Freiburg (Breisgau) / Munich: Alber, 1986 (practical philosophy; vol. 24).
    • Intent . Translated from the English by Joachim Schulte, Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2010.
  • Human Life, Action and Ethics . Ed. by Mary Geach and Luke Gormally, St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2005.
  • Faith in a hard ground . Essays on Religion, Philosophy and Ethics. Ed. by Mary Geach and Luke Gormally, St. Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2008.
  • The First Person , in Samuel Guttenplan (Ed.): Mind and Language (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), pp. 45-65 ( online ).
  • An Introduction to Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Themes in the Philosophy of Wittgenstein. , Indiana, USA: St. Augustine's Press, 1959.
    • An introduction to Wittgenstein's "Tractatus". Topics in Wittgenstein's philosophy. , Vienna / Berlin: Turia + Kant, 2016.
  • Modern Moral Philosophy , in: Philosophy 33/124 (1958).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A list of their courses can be found at http://www.unav.es/filosofia/jmtorralba/Lectures_G.EM_Anscombe.pdf .
  2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed April 29, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Robert P. George: Elizabeth Anscombe, RIP In: National Review Online, February 3-4, 2001. Archive link ( Memento of November 15, 2010 on the Internet Archive ); Christopher Coope: Worth and Welfare in the Controversy over Abortion. Palgrave Macmillan, London: 2006, p. 15.
  4. ^ GEM Anscombe: Intention . Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 9-10.
  5. ^ GEM Anscombe: Intention . Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 11.
  6. ^ Modern Moral Philosophy, in: Günter Grewendorf / Georg Meggle (eds.), Language and Ethics, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1974, pp. 217–243.
personal data
SURNAME Anscombe, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anscombe, Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British philosopher and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Limerick , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 2001
Place of death Cambridge