The Oxford Quartet: Women Philosophers Against the Tide

Join us to explore how four women philosophers, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch, reacted against prevailing orthodoxies to develop new ideas in moral philosophy. Influenced by these philosophical friendships, they established new frameworks for morals against a background of war, destruction and changing attitudes.

Celebrated actress, Annette Badland will read extracts from letters, poems and autobiographical writings of the Quartet, including recently discovered poems and notebooks of Iris Murdoch.   Annette is well-known for her work on stage, in film and on TV, including roles in Dr Who, Harlan Cobden’s Run Away and Midsummer Murders. She is Patron of the Iris Murdoch Society. She acted in the Murdoch Play, 3 Arrows.

Professor Gary Browning, who has written extensively on Iris Murdoch, will lead the panel discussion which will explore relations between the quartet, their experiences at Oxford and beyond and their unique contributions to philosophy. He will be joined by Professor Constantine Sandis, who works on many areas of philosophy including Wittgenstein, Anscombe  and the philosophy of action. He is a co-translator of Anscombe’s ‘Intention’ into Greek, (with Evgenia Mylonaki), an expert on Anscombe and participated in the radio discussion on Anscombe in In Our Time. Sandis is currently working on two books with his former teacher, Gabriele Taylor (who was in turn taught by Murdoch and Foot). Sasha Lawson- Frost is currently completing a doctorate at the University of Durham on Obedience in Ethics. Lawson-Frost has research interests in Murdoch, Anscombe, Simone Weil and The Oxford Quartet more generally. She is involved in the philosophy group In Parenthesis, and has written a number of scholarly articles.

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