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Wisdom, Information and Wonder: What is Knowledge For?
In this book one of Britain's leading popular philosophers tackles a question that is at the root of our What is knowledge for?
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Mary Midgley
40 books141 followersMary Beatrice Midgley (née Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018[1]) was a British philosopher. She was a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University and was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast And Man (1978), when she was in her fifties. She has since written over 15 other books, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984), The Ethical Primate (1994), Evolution as a Religion (1985), and Science as Salvation (1992). She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Durham and Newcastle universities. Her autobiography, The Owl of Minerva, was published in 2005.
Midgley strongly opposed reductionism and scientism, and any attempts to make science a substitute for the humanities—a role for which it is, she argued, wholly inadequate. She wrote extensively about what philosophers can learn from nature, particularly from animals. A number of her books and articles discussed philosophical ideas appearing in popular science, including those of Richard Dawkins. She also wrote in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis. The Guardian described her as a fiercely combative philosopher and the UK's "foremost scourge of 'scientific pretension.'"
Midgley strongly opposed reductionism and scientism, and any attempts to make science a substitute for the humanities—a role for which it is, she argued, wholly inadequate. She wrote extensively about what philosophers can learn from nature, particularly from animals. A number of her books and articles discussed philosophical ideas appearing in popular science, including those of Richard Dawkins. She also wrote in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis. The Guardian described her as a fiercely combative philosopher and the UK's "foremost scourge of 'scientific pretension.'"
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 25, 2021
This book feels like several previously published essays on loosely related subjects. The chapters on meta-ethics and value are fine, the chapters on the history of british philosophy are just a gloss, and the chapters complaining about academia aren't worthwhile. The language and arguments are clear (clearer than Wittgenstein), but the broader claims about specialization, academia, sociology of science, how conflicts should be resolved, etc, are not convincing.
January 28, 2019
How I hope to have such a distinct sense of place and voice as Mary Midgley, proudly placing herself as an English analytic philosopher trained at Oxford. My interest is to gain a better understanding of wisdom and knowledge. I particularly liked the idea of knowledge being active and ‘fertile’. This is much more than the simplistic formula of data, information, knowledge. There is a palpatable sense of excitement. Fascinating on the snippets she had on teaching.
I ‘gutted’ much of the second half as she focused on the place of philosophy as a discipline in particular - a lovely term I’d forgotten - a skim of the essentials for my own arguments and thinking.
This is distinctly a specialist philosophy text. But the interested layman, such as I, found much to ponder on. Utterly readable, provocative. And reaffirming the importance of a love of learning.
I ‘gutted’ much of the second half as she focused on the place of philosophy as a discipline in particular - a lovely term I’d forgotten - a skim of the essentials for my own arguments and thinking.
This is distinctly a specialist philosophy text. But the interested layman, such as I, found much to ponder on. Utterly readable, provocative. And reaffirming the importance of a love of learning.
May 2, 2018
"Philosophy is the formalization of an ancient art which used to be called the search for wisdom, but we have got too prissy to use such words today."
This turned out to be an interpretation of the history of organized thought, a defense of analytic/linguistic philosophy, and a call to unashamed moral consciousness in the philosophic pursuit. Which is not what I was expecting, but I'm still glad I read it.
It reminded me of David Clark's To Know And Love God; although the author is almost certainly not a believer, I think Christians who engage with secular thinkers would be helped by her book. (That's my theory, anyway; I only stumbled into it by accident!)
This turned out to be an interpretation of the history of organized thought, a defense of analytic/linguistic philosophy, and a call to unashamed moral consciousness in the philosophic pursuit. Which is not what I was expecting, but I'm still glad I read it.
It reminded me of David Clark's To Know And Love God; although the author is almost certainly not a believer, I think Christians who engage with secular thinkers would be helped by her book. (That's my theory, anyway; I only stumbled into it by accident!)
December 15, 2014
Read: 9 May / 30 June-4 Aug 2009. Restarted 30 Jun with my own copy. A most excellent book which I hope to revisit on occasion. Recommended by David Bade.
http://marklindner.info/blog/2009/12/...
http://marklindner.info/blog/2009/12/...
April 11, 2016
This is more of a philosophy textbook. Most of the chapters were difficult to comprehend.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews