Module description
In post-war Oxford, between the 1950s and the 1980s, a rebellion took shape against prevailing conceptions of morality, and eventually against morality itself. New methods and new approaches to thinking about morality were developed by philosophers including Anscombe, Austin, Foot, Hart, Murdoch, Strawson, Wiggins, and Williams. The main formative influences on this movement in philosophy, as on philosophy in Oxford generally in this period, were the anthropological philosophy of language developed by Wittgenstein in the 1930s and 1940s and the so-called ‘ordinary language’ approach to philosophy championed by J.L. Austin. But Aristotelian ethics, Thomist moral philosophy, and existentialism also fed into this radical movement. This course will examine key articles and chapters by these philosophers, including but not limited to several of the following:
J.L. Austin, A plea for excuses (1957); E. Anscombe, Modern moral philosophy (1958); P. Foot, Moral beliefs (1959); J.L. Hart, The Concept of Law, ch. 8 (1961); P.F. Strawson, Social morality and individual ideal (1961); I. Murdoch, The idea of perfection (1964); B/ Williams, Morality and the emotions (1965); I. Murdoch, The sovereignty of good over other concepts (1967); P. Foot, Morality as a system of hypothetical imperatives (1972); D. Wiggins, Truth, invention, and the meaning of life (1976); E. Anscombe: Medallist’s address: Action, Intention, and ‘double effect’ (1982); P. Foot, Morality, action and, outcome (1985); B. Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, ch. 10 (1985).
Assessment details
- Summative assessment: 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
- Formative assessment: 2 abstracts x 500-1000-words each, for two essay questions, with a bibliography for each one including two or three lines on the relevance of each bibliography item.
Students are reassessed in the failed elements of assessment and by the same methods as the first attempt.
Educational aims & objectives
The module will introduce students to the philosophy of the central thinkers in analytic philosophy, outlining and critically assessing the new methods and approaches to thinking about morality that developed in post-war Oxford, between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Learning outcomes
Students will acquire a critical understanding of the thinking about morality that developed in post-war Oxford, between the 1950s and the 1980s. They will acquire a command and overview of some central thinkers in that period and their most influential arguments.
Teaching pattern
Weekly (over ten weeks):
-One two-hour module-size seminar (this will be held at the Institute of Philosophy, Senate House, London); and
-One one-hour small group seminar - at King’s.
Suggested reading list
(Read Hacker first)
G.E.M. Anscombe, 1958. ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ Philosophy. Vol. 33, 124. pp. 1-19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3749051
J.L. Austin, 1957. ‘A plea for Excuses’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 57, Issue 1. Pages 1–30, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/57.1.1
P.M.S. Hacker, 1996. Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth-Century Analytical Philosophy, Ch. 6. Wiley-Blackwell.