G.E.M. Anscombe
1919 CE – 2001 CE · Contemporary Era
“A fierce, original philosopher who revived virtue ethics, invented the philosophy of action as a field, and coined the term 'consequentialism.' She translated Wittgenstein's masterwork into English and succeeded to his chair at Cambridge.”
Biography
A British analytic philosopher, student and literary executor of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and professor of philosophy at Cambridge. Born in Limerick, educated at Oxford and Cambridge. A devout Catholic convert, she publicly opposed Oxford's granting an honorary degree to President Truman over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her work spanned philosophy of action, moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, and logic.
Major Works
Key Arguments
Click “Philosophy 101” to read the full exploration of each argument.
Modern Moral Philosophy and the Revival of Virtue Ethics
In her landmark 1958 paper 'Modern Moral Philosophy,' Anscombe argued that the dominant approaches to ethics, utilitarianism, Kantianism, and social contract theory, all secretly depend on a 'law conception of ethics' inherited from Christianity. They use concepts like 'moral obligation,' 'moral duty,' and the moral 'ought' that only make sense if there is a divine lawgiver. Without God in the picture, these concepts are like a law of contract in a society that has abolished courts, the words remain but the institution that gave them force is gone. She argued that moral philosophy should abandon these bankrupt concepts and return to Aristotle's focus on virtues, character, and human flourishing.
Why it matters: Created the modern virtue ethics movement. Coined the term 'consequentialism' (as a critique, not an endorsement). Inspired Alasdair MacIntyre, Philippa Foot, Rosalind Hursthouse, and the entire contemporary revival of Aristotelian ethics. An influential paper that reshaped 20th-century ethics.
Intention and the Philosophy of Action
In her 1957 book Intention, described by Donald Davidson as 'the most important treatment of action since Aristotle', Anscombe asked a simple on the surface question: what distinguishes an intentional action from a mere bodily movement? She argued that intentional actions are those to which a special sense of the question 'Why?' applies, where the agent can give reasons. Crucially, our knowledge of our own intentional actions is not based on observation (we do not watch ourselves to find out what we are doing); it is 'practical knowledge', knowledge that is the cause of what it understands, rather than being derived from what it observes.
Why it matters: Founded the philosophy of action as a distinct field of inquiry. Her concept of practical knowledge, knowing what you are doing without observing yourself, challenged empiricist assumptions about self-knowledge and influenced Davidson, John Searle, and decades of subsequent work on agency, reasons, and intentionality.
Causality and Determination
In her 1971 inaugural lecture at Cambridge, Anscombe challenged the assumption, shared by both determinists and libertarians, that causality implies determinism. She argued that recognizing something as a cause does not require believing that it necessarily produced its effect. Causes can be genuinely operative without being sufficient conditions. An acorn causes an oak tree, but not every acorn becomes an oak. This dissolves the apparent conflict between causality and free will, since accepting that our actions have causes need not mean they were predetermined.
Why it matters: Challenged centuries of philosophical orthodoxy on causation. Anticipated developments in probabilistic causation and influenced debates on free will by showing that the determinism-versus-freedom framing rests on a mistaken assumption about what causation requires.
Lasting Influence
Revived virtue ethics, founded the philosophy of action, and challenged the foundations of modern moral philosophy.
Your Reading Path
The Companion Guide
Seven eras of philosophy in one volume — reading lists, key terms, journal prompts · $19.99