Rachael Wiseman

Jean Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)   1919       15 July: Born in Phibsborough, Ireland, to Irene Alice and Wills John Hughes Murdoch.   1925       Entered the Froebel Demonstration School, Roehampton.   1932       Joined Badminton School, Bristol, where she boarded until 1938.   1938       Attended university at Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied Classics. She graduated in 1942 with first-class honours. —-         Joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, but left in 1942.   1943       January: Publication of “Midnight Hour,” Adelphi, pp.60-1.[1] —-         July: Publication of “Rebirth of Christianity,” Adelphi, pp.134-5.[2]   1944       June: Went to work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). —-         July: Publication of “Worship and Common Life,” Adelphi, pp.134-5.[3]   1946       Left the UNNRA.   1947       Began studying philosophy as a postgraduate at Newnham College, Cambridge. She was awarded the Sarah Smithson Studentship in Philosophy.   1948       Became a fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford, where she taught philosophy until 1963.   1950       March: Publication of “The Novelist as Metaphysician,” Listener, 43, pp.473-6; and, “The Existentialist Hero,” Listener,43, pp.523-4. —-         April: Publication of a review of The Ethics of Ambiguity, by Simone de Beauvoir, Mind, 59, pp.127-8; and a review of The Emotions: The Outline of a Theory, by Jean-Paul Sartre, Mind,59, pp.268-71.   1951       July: Publication of “Symposium: Thinking and Language” (with A. C. Lloyd and Gilbert Ryle), Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume,25 (1),...

Philippa Ruth Foot (1920-2010)   1920       3 October: Born to Esther Cleveland and Captain William Sidney Bence Bosanquet.   1939       Studied PPE at Somerville College, Oxford. She graduated in 1942, with first-class honours.   1945       Married the historian, Michael Richard Daniell Foot.   1947       Became a lecturer, at Somerville College. She remained there until 1950.   1949       Became Somerville College’s first philosophy Tutorial Fellow.[1]   1952       October: Publication of “The Philosopher’s Defence of Morality,” Philosophy, 27 (103), pp.311-28.   1954       Publication of “Symposium: When Is a Principle a Moral Principle?” (with Jonathan Harrison), Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, 28, pp.95-134. —-         April: Publication of a review of The Interpretation of Plato’s Republic, by N. R. Murphy, Mind, 63 (250), pp.270-4.   1957       April: Publication of a review of Godwin’s Moral Philosophy, by D. H. Monro, Mind, 66, (262), pp.279-80. —-         October: Publication of “Free Will As Involving Determinism,” The Philosophical Review, 66 (4), pp.439-50.   1958       Publication of “Moral Beliefs,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 59, pp.83-104.[2] —-         October: Publication of “Moral Arguments,” Mind, 67 (268), pp.502-13.   [Note: at some point in the 1960’s (possibly the late 1960’s), Foot and Iris Murdoch supposedly had a brief affair. They communicated extensively throughout their lifetimes via letters, which are now owned by Kingston University’s Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies]   1960       Divorced.   1961       Publication of “Symposium: Goodness...