Her autobiography The Owl of Minerva is a charming life story written against the background of the socio-political and philosophical trajectory of the tumultuous twentieth century; Midgely having been born in 1919 and passing in 2018 lived most of it. Astonishingly her last book was published a year before she died. An Oxford-trained philosopher in the war years and later senior lecturer at my alma mater Newcastle University, Midgely bucked the then trendy analytical and linguistic philosophy and returned to an earlier version of philosophy—the love and pursuit of wisdom to make life better. I have always found her work intellectually satisfying and balm for the soul. (She retired from Newcastle in 1980. I arrived at Newcastle in 1985 to do graduate study in theology and ethics in the religious studies department. Under the Thatcher government the philosophy department was shuttered in 1986. At the time I was only vaguely aware of Midgely's work and wish, now, that I had made her acquaintance—so near yet so far, but such is life.)
Like the best philosophy Midgely touches on every aspect of human being and our relationships(to ourselves, to others, to nature, to the divine) and she always writes in non-convoluted prose. She makes sense—common sense—and I always leave her work refreshed, wanting to be my best self, and wanting to help others achieve their own best selves. And our personal best is not mere selfishness. One of Midgely's emphases is the interconnectedness of everything: thinking, feeling, choosing, nature, science, the sociability of the human animal and the complexity of all our relationships. Life is lived best when relationships are healthy, when we know ourselves and are humble concerning our abilities, successes and failures, and when we are other-regarding and not merely self-regarding.
A final thought I am mulling over: Philosophy, as the love of wisdom, is not having arrived at some eternal version of truth. Rather, philosophy is the practice of pursuing wisdom and seeking to follow wisdom when it is found, wherever it is found. Pursuing, following. Catching glimpses here and there. Making changes to thought and action. And on again with the pursuit.
Live well today,
+Ab. Andy