Clare Mac Cumhaill

Rachael Wiseman

Lively ... This fascinating work of historico-logico-feminism shows... how women fought their way on to the world stage of philosophy and turned its spotlight away from an analytical desert on to what was really important - moral clarity, wisdom and truth

The narrative is of four brilliant women finding their voices, opposing received wisdom, and developing an alternative picture of human beings and their place in the world... To read this story is to be reminded...that the life of the mind can be as intense and eventful as friendship itself

Joyful... These four are enlivening companions... four glorious heroines, confident and curious, focused on the world and not on themselves

Irresistible... Highly evocative... Bring[s] to life an important episode in intellectual history, and [has] made me again grateful that I was for a time a contemporary of these unforgettable women

A very entertaining read that manages to turn dry, intellectual gymnastics into a high-stakes spectator sport

The heart of this book resides in the friendship among the four women and the ways they supported and influenced one another... The biographical material in Metaphysical Animals is evocative and sparkling, sketching each woman's character with a novelists mastery of detail

Lively and enlightening... the four heroines of this book were untimely... Metaphysical Animals is a portrait in intellectual courage

Terrific... A joyous story of four clever young women making their way in the world... A group biography that is both gossipy and gripping but also, like the women themselves, profoundly serious. A triumph

Tell[s] a wonderful story of four brilliant women whose audaciously unfashionable thought (as well as their attentive teaching and mentorship) has changed the face of the discipline... A delightful story of love, friendship and eccentricity

In Metaphysical Animals Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachel Wiseman attempt something that has never been done before... [They] present the story of women and philosophy in the war and post-war years, a story located in the cloisters of Oxford but also stretching out into dwelling places with prams in the hall

Metaphysical Animals is terrific; women philosophers on women philosophers. And both Aristotle and Aquinas would have approved of the title

A firecracker account of how four female dons in postwar Oxford...rescued moral philosophy from its rut

An exhilarating read... The book conjures up an extraordinary time when philosophy really mattered

It is no easy task to get a group biography just right, but the authors succeed in bringing the reader elegantly along their overlapping journeys of discovery and friendship... Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a masterly account of their philosophy and their friendship

How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

WINNER OF THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 
AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK 
A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD 
 
 
Elizabeth Anscombe: defiantly brilliant, chain-smoking, trouser-wearing Catholic and (eventual) mother of seven. 
 
Philippa Foot: pathalogically discreet, quietly rebellious granddaughter of a US president. 
 
Mary Midgley: witty scholar and careful observer of humans and animals alike. 
 
Iris Murdoch: aspiring novelist and Francophile with the power to seduce (almost) anyone. 
 
 
Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a vivid portrait of the endeavours and achievements of these four remarkable women. As undergraduates at Oxford during the Second World War, they shared ideas (as well as shoes, sofas and lovers). From the disorder and despair of war, they went on to breathe new life into philosophy, creating a radically fresh way of thinking about freedom, reality and human goodness that is there for us today. 
 
 
'Evocative and sparkling' New York Times 
 
'A triumph' Mail on Sunday

Clare Mac Cumhaill

Praise for Metaphysical Animals

Excellent

Lively ... This fascinating work of historico-logico-feminism shows... how women fought their way on to the world stage of philosophy and turned its spotlight away from an analytical desert on to what ...

The narrative is of four brilliant women finding their voices, opposing received wisdom, and developing an alternative picture of human beings and their place in the world... To read this story is to be re ...

Excellent

Lively ... This fascinating work of historico-logico-feminism shows... how women fought their way on to the world stage of philosophy and turned its spotlight away from an analytical desert on to what ...

The narrative is of four brilliant women finding their voices, opposing received wisdom, and developing an alternative picture of human beings and their place in the world... To read this story is to be re ...

Excellent

Lively ... This fascinating work of historico-logico-feminism shows... how women fought their way on to the world stage of philosophy and turned its spotlight away from an analytical desert on to what ...

The narrative is of four brilliant women finding their voices, opposing received wisdom, and developing an alternative picture of human beings and their place in the world... To read this story is to be re ...

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