Moral philosophy
Mary Midgley
1919 – 2018
Midgley's lifelong argument was against single explanatory pictures — the myths we adopt without noticing they are myths.
Read alongside: Sense
- Start with
- The Myths We Live By (2003)
- Where they resist the book
- Her scepticism cuts both ways: a practice built on one governing image is precisely the kind of thing she would ask you to test.
Works worth the time
The Myths We Live By · 2003
Her argument against governing pictures — including, if you are honest, this one.
Read further
- Royal Institute of Philosophy: Mary Midgley ↗
Royal Institute of Philosophy
- Wikipedia: Mary Midgley ↗
Wikipedia
Where Midgley appears
I. The RiverCritical thinking
Metaphors are arguments in disguise.
Machine, battlefield, engine, pipeline — each carries a hidden claim about what an organisation is and what may reasonably be done to it. The river is a metaphor too, and it should be tested rather than adopted. Ask what it makes visible and what it lets you avoid.