Mary and Geoff Midgley Papers

Philosophical, personal and family papers of moral philosopher Mary Midgley, and of her husband and fellow philosopher Geoffrey Midgley

See separate webpages for an introduction to Mary, and to the main philosophical themes within her work.

Mary Midgley was born in Dulwich, London in 1919 (as Mary Scrutton), before moving to Cambridge (1920), Greenford (1924) and Kingston (ca.1934). She was educated at Downe House School near Newbury (1932-1937).

She was at Somerville College, Oxford (Classics), 1938-1942, and worked for Ministry of Production, Downe House School, Bedford School and with Gilbert Murray at Oxford until 1947. She began a D.Phil. at Oxford (thesis on Plotinus, not completed), 1947-1949, and was lecturer in Philosophy at Reading University, 1949-1950. In 1950, she married Geoff Midgley, and moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where she brought up her family (Tom, David, Martin). She worked as a lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University 1962-1980.

Her autobiography was published 2005 ( The owl of Minerva: a memoir), in the same year as a collection of her philosophical writings (The essential Mary Midgley, ed. David Midgley)

Mary's first radio broadcasts (chiefly book reviews for BBC Radio 3) were in the 1940s, and she took part in radio discussion programmes from the 1950s. Her first philosophical articles (chiefly in The Listener and The Twentieth Century), and book reviews for New Statesman, were published under the name Mary Scrutton, 1950-1959. Her first articles in Philosophy and other academic journals were published from 1972, under the name Mary Midgley.

In 1976, she gave a series of seminars at Cornell University on human nature, subsequently worked up as her first book, Beast and Man: the roots of human nature, 1979. Other major lecture series were given at Trent University, Ontario, Canada, 1981-1982 (Gilbert Ryle lectures, forming the basis for the first part of her Wickedness: a philosophical essay, 1984); at University of St Andrew's, 1984-1985, on Thought and the world (reworked for publication as Wisdom, Information and Wonder: what is knowledge for, 1989); at University of Edinburgh, 1989-1990, on Science and Salvation (Gifford lectures, reworked for publication as Science as Salvation, 1992). Her most recent book was published 2018. A full list of Mary Midgley's monographs is included within the catalogue, along with a link and addenda for an online bibliography of articles.

Her contributions to the Guardian newspaper include articles for the Body and Soul column (1984-1988), for the Comment is Free: Belief (online) and Face to Faith (print) columns (2008-2010) and a series on Hobbes, Leviathan (2009), as well as other articles and numerous letters. She continued to write reviews and articles for New Statesman (1985-2004) and contributed articles and letters to New Scientist (1978-2014). From 2009 to 2014 she took part in festivals of ideas, including Free Thinking (BBC Radio 3, Gateshead) and How the Light Gets in (Institute of Arts and Ideas, Hay)

Mary Midgley was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. by Durham University in 1995 and an Honorary D.C.L. by Newcastle University in 2008. She holds (or has held) Honorary Fellowships at Newcastle University (Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences research centre), Somerville College, Oxford, and University of Manchester 1996-1999 (Centre for Philosophy and the Environment). Mary and other women philosophers who studied at Oxford during WW2 (Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot) are the subject of a research project www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk(In Parenthesis) at Durham University and University of Liverpool, 2016-2018, and of the Royal Institute of Philosophy's London Lectures 2018-2019.

Mary Midgley died 10 October 2018. Open access obituaries with good summaries of her life and work were published in The Guardian 12/10/2018 (by Jane Heal), The New York Times 15/10/2018 (by John Motyka), the Society for Women in Philosophy website www.swipuk.org 13/10/2018 (by Ian Kidd), and The Institute for Art and Ideas website 16/10/2018 (by Rachael Wiseman and Clare Mac Cumhaill).

Geoffrey (Geoff) Midgley was born in Ilford, Essex in 1921, studied at New College, Oxford in the 1940s (PPE, interrupted by war service working with radar for the RAF, followed by Philosophy B.Phil.). From 1949 to 1986, he was a lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University (Head of Department from 1982). He published papers on linguistic rules in the 1950s (see bibliography within online catalogue), and died in 1997 at Newcastle upon Tyne.

Open for consultation, subject to some sections that remain unlisted (see catalogue)

Donated by Mary Midgley in October and December 2016 (accession references Misc.2016/17:28 and Misc.2016/17:56), with additional donations March 2017 (Misc.2016/17:107), June 2018 (Misc.2017/18:103) and August 2018 (Misc.2018/19:1)

The philosophical papers of Mary Midgley are listed in the archive catalogue online. Her personal (family) papers are not yet fully catalogued. Geoff Midgley's papers are currently unlisted.

Most of the published items, including the main series of journal articles, are included within the library printed catalogue, where they can be found by doing a shelfmark search.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Archives and Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Karl Britton Papers: papers of Karl William Britton (1909-83), professor of philosophy at Newcastle University (formerly King's College), who appointed Mary Midgley to a lectureship there in 1964

Iris Murdoch archive: at Kingston University, London

Philippa Foot papers at Somerville College, Oxford

A bibliography of articles by Geoff Midgley and of monographs by Mary Midgley is included within the online catalogue. An online bibliography compiled by Ian Kidd is available at the Women in Parenthesis website, with additional articles and reprints noted within the online catalogue.