G. E. M. Anscombe
Modern ethics talks of duty without a lawgiver; we should return to character and virtue, and ask what people intend when they act.
Placement
“Modern Moral Philosophy” (1958) revived virtue ethics and coined the term “consequentialism.”
Key ideas
- Intention
- Revival of virtue ethics
- Consequentialism (the term)
Teachers: Ludwig Wittgenstein
Students: Charles Taylor
Influence
Influenced by 3
Aristotle
influenced by ✓
Anscombe took Aristotle’s practical syllogism as a model of intentional action (Intention, 1957) and urged that ethics start from psychology and the virtues (‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, 1958). G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention (1957); “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958); SEP “Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Thomas Aquinas
influenced by ✓
Anscombe adopted Aquinas’s account of practical knowledge as ‘the cause of what it understands’ (Intention, 1957) and defended his principle of double effect (‘War and Murder’, 1961). G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention (1957); “War and Murder”, in W. Stein (ed.), Nuclear Weapons: A Catholic Response (1961); SEP “Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe”; SEP “Doctrine of Double Effect”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with
studied with ✓
Anscombe moved to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1942 as a research student and attended Wittgenstein’s lectures, which she said freed her from phenomenalism; she became one of his closest students, translated the Philosophical Investigations (1953) and was one of his literary executors. SEP “Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe”; R. Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ludwig Wittgenstein › 1889–1951
Influenced 4
Georg Henrik von Wright
influenced
Von Wright developed Anscombe’s practical syllogism from Intention (1957) into a teleological model of understanding action, set against causal explanation (Explanation and Understanding, 1971). G. H. von Wright, Explanation and Understanding (1971); G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention (1957)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Henrik von Wright › 1916–2003
Philippa Foot
influenced
Foot took up Anscombe’s call for an ethics of the virtues and her ‘Aristotelian necessities’, grounding moral evaluation in facts about human life (Natural Goodness, 2001). P. Foot, Natural Goodness (2001); G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958); “On Promising and Its Justice” (1969); SEP “Philippa Foot”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Philippa Foot › 1920–2010
Alasdair MacIntyre
influenced
MacIntyre took up Anscombe’s thesis that the moral ‘ought’ survives from a lost law conception of ethics in diagnosing modern moral discourse (After Virtue, 1981). A. MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981); G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958); SEP “Virtue Ethics”
Evidence: AI draft
Alasdair MacIntyre › 1929–2025
Charles Taylor taught
taught
Taylor’s biography at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna names Anscombe, with Isaiah Berlin, as supervisor of his Oxford DPhil (1961), the basis of The Explanation of Behaviour (1964); other accounts name Berlin alone, so her formal role is uncertain. IWM Vienna, “Charles Taylor – Short Biography”; R. Abbey, Charles Taylor (2000)
Evidence: AI draft
Charles Taylor › b. 1931
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Donald Davidson
criticised by
Davidson rejected the view, associated with Anscombe’s Intention (1957), that reasons are not causes: rationalisation is a species of causal explanation (‘Actions, Reasons, and Causes’, 1963). D. Davidson, “Actions, Reasons, and Causes”, Journal of Philosophy 60 (1963), 685–700; G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention (1957)
Evidence: AI draft
Donald Davidson › 1917–2003
Criticizes 3
Immanuel Kant
criticised
Anscombe called Kant’s idea of legislating for oneself absurd and objected that universalisability is useless without a rule on relevant descriptions of an act (‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, 1958). G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958), 1–19
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
John Stuart Mill
criticised
Anscombe held that Mill, like Kant, ignores the need to stipulate which description of an act is relevant, so his principle lacks content (‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, 1958). G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958), 1–19
Evidence: AI draft
John Stuart Mill › 1806–1873
Henry Sidgwick
criticised
Anscombe faulted Sidgwick for denying any moral difference between intended and foreseen consequences, the step that opened the way to what she named ‘consequentialism’ (‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, 1958). G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958), 1–19; H. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (1874)
Evidence: AI draft
Henry Sidgwick › 1838–1900
Works
- 1957Intention
What does it mean to act intentionally? Under a description.
Without a lawgiver, no moral “ought” – back to Aristotle.
Position
Anscombe’s short book Intention founded modern action theory: an action is intentional “under a description,” and the question “Why?” – answered with a reason – reveals it. In her essay “Modern Moral Philosophy” she argued that the moral “ought” of duty-based ethics is a relic of a divine law conception that modern philosophers no longer believe in. Without a lawgiver, she suggested, moral philosophy should start again with psychology and the virtues, as in Aristotle. In the same essay she coined the term “consequentialism” for a view she rejected – including the idea that any act might be justified by its good outcomes. Her essay sparked the revival of virtue ethics; Foot and MacIntyre built on it.
Life & context
Born in Limerick in 1919, Anscombe studied at Oxford, converted to Catholicism and went to Cambridge, where she became one of Wittgenstein’s closest students. She translated the Philosophical Investigations and was one of his literary executors. After many years at Oxford she held Wittgenstein’s former chair in Cambridge from 1970 to 1986. She was married to the philosopher Peter Geach.
Further main works
- An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (1959)
- The First Person (1975)
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