An Examination and Contextual Expansion of Midgley's Ethical Naturalism

我的博士研究将是对玛丽·米格利伦理自然主义的第一次学术考察，将她的作品置于所谓的“战时四重奏”的背景下（怀斯曼和麦克·坎希尔，2018年）。伊丽莎白·安斯科姆、艾瑞斯·默多克、菲利帕·富特和玛丽·米奇利是20世纪的重要人物，但她们在学术上被忽视了近60年。直到最近，对Midgley哲学的学术研究还很少（见Kidd & McKinnell， 2016）。在杜伦大学（Durham University）的In Parenthesis项目的基础上，我的研究努力通过将Midgely的自然主义置于这所相互启发的女子学校中来消除这种忽视。我的目标是证实Benjamin Lipscomb的说法，即Midgley是“第一个提出自然主义伦理的积极建议，而不是由Anscombe， Foot和Murdoch推荐的那种”（Lipscomb, 2016:209）。我将谈谈战时四重奏的一个核心问题：事实与价值的分离，这是由a.j. Ayer鼓动的。据此，价值判断在形式上独立于关于人性和人类需要的自然事实（Ayer, 1936）。这种事实/价值的分离仍然是当今自然主义的一个重要绊脚石（De Caro和Macarthur， 2010）。自由博物学家约翰·麦克道尔（John McDowell, 1994;2004）认为，人类主体需要重新认识自然世界，她已经与自然世界离婚了。我的目标是将米德利扬的自然主义作为解决这些历史和当代双重问题的方法。我的项目将有三个部分，详细如下。

My doctoral research will be the first scholarly examination of Mary Midgley's ethical naturalism to situate her work within the context of the so-called 'Wartime Quartet' (Wiseman & Mac Cumhaill, 2018). Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Phillipa Foot and Mary Midgley are major 20th century figures - but they face almost sixty years of scholarly neglect. Until recently, there has been very little scholarly investigation into Midgley's philosophy (see Kidd & McKinnell, 2016). Building on the foundation of Durham University's In Parenthesis project , my research strives to undo this neglect by situating Midgely's naturalism within this mutually enlightening female school. I aim to establish Benjamin Lipscomb's claim that Midgley's was 'the first to present a positive proposal for a naturalistic ethics of the kind recommended but not developed by Anscombe, Foot, and Murdoch' (Lipscomb, 2016:209).I will address a central concern of the Wartime Quartet: the separation between fact and value, instigated by A.J Ayer. According to which, value-judgments are formally independent from natural facts about human nature and human need (Ayer, 1936). This fact/value separation remains a significant stumbling block for naturalisms today (De Caro and Macarthur, 2010). Liberal naturalist John McDowell (1994;2004), argues that the human subject needs to be reacquainted with the natural world, to which she has become divorced. I aim to pose Midgleyan naturalism as a solution to these twin historical and contemporary problems. My project will have three parts, detailed below.