Modern Moral Philosophy

Introduction

The essay appeared in the journal Philosophy in January 1958. It begins with three theses: that moral philosophy should be laid aside until we have an adequate philosophy of psychology; that the concepts of moral obligation and the moral “ought” should be jettisoned, being survivals of an earlier conception of ethics that no longer exists; and that the differences between the well-known English moral philosophers since Sidgwick are of little importance. Anscombe criticises Kant’s idea of legislating for oneself and Hume’s gap between “is” and “ought”, and suggests notions such as justice and virtue as a better starting point. The essay is a classic text of contemporary moral philosophy.

Connections

Builds on

• Nicomachean Ethicsc. 340 BCE · Aristotle

Criticizes

• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals1785 · Immanuel Kant
• The Methods of Ethics1874 · Henry Sidgwick

Taken up in

• After Virtue1981 · Alasdair MacIntyre

More works by G. E. M. Anscombe

• 1957Intention