Foreword Rachael Wiseman
Acknowledgements
Preface to Second Edition David Midgley
Introduction David Midgley
Part 1: The Roots of Human Nature
1. Have We a Nature?
2. Animals and the Problem of Evil
3. Speech and Other Excellences
4. Pseudo-Darwinism and Social Atomism
5. The Natural Springs of Morality
6. The Problem of Natural Evil
7. The Elusiveness of Responsibility
8. Selves and Shadows
9. Emotion, Emotiveness and Sentimentality
10. Equality and Outer Darkness
11. Is a Dolphin a Person?
Part 2: Philosophizing Out in the World
12. Philosophical Plumbing
13. Wisdom and Contemplation
14. The Withdrawal of Moral Philosophy
15. Escaping from Solitude
16. Sciencephobia and Its Sources
17. What Is Materialism? (And, by the Way, What is Matter?)
18. The Human Heart and Other Organs
19. On Trying Out One’s New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer
Part 3: The Myths of Science
20. Salvation and the Academics
21. Evolutionary Dramas: There Is Grandeur in This View of Life
22. The Irresistible Escalator
23. The Service of Self and the Service of Kali
24. Biotechnology and the Yuk Factor
25. The Supernatural Engineer
26. The Remarkable Masculine Birth Of Time
Part 4: Reason and Imagination
27. The Sources of Thought
28. Atomistic Visions: The Quest for Permanence
29. Putting Our Selves Together Again
30. A Plague on Both Their Houses
Part 5: Gaian Thinking: Putting it All Together
31. Individualism and the Concept of Gaia
32. Gods and Goddesses: The Role of Wonder
33. Why There is Such a Thing as Society
34. The Unity of Life
Part 6: The Life of a Philosopher - A Reflective Overview
35. Beginnings: Ancestors and Downe House School
36. Oxford: The Philosophical Scene
37. Escaping from Oxford: Plotinus, Wittgenstein, and the Consolations of Philosophy.
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Mary Midgley (1919–2018) was one of the leading moral philosophers of her generation and has been described by The Guardian as 'the foremost scourge of scientific pretension in this country'. Many of her books are available in Routledge Classics, including Beast and Man, Wickedness and The Myths We Live By.
David Midgley is a social and environmental activist and a teacher of Buddhist philosophy and meditation. In 1996 he founded Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and taught regularly at the Centre for 25 years.
'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
