Inspired by In Parenthesis, our own research group has spent our last few sessions examining some essays by Anscombe and Murdoch. I have found seeing these philosophers as part of a distinct school of thought very helpful to understanding their work individually. The thematic similarities are so striking! Even Anscombe’s complaint about the shallowness of Sidgwick on humility in “Modern Moral Philosophy” is echoed by Murdoch in The Sovereignty of Good when she writes that some philosophers think that humility is “a peculiar habit of self-effacement, rather like having an inaudible voice”.
Lesley Jamieson, PhD Candidate, Queen’s University in Kingston