Philippa Foot
1920 CE – 2010 CE · Contemporary Era
“The virtues are not mere feelings or expressions of attitude: they are rationally grounded human necessities.”
Biography
An English philosopher who helped revive Aristotelian virtue ethics within the analytic tradition and invented the Trolley Problem, a widely discussed thought experiment in modern philosophy. Working at Somerville College, Oxford alongside Elizabeth Anscombe and Iris Murdoch, Foot challenged the emotivism and prescriptivism that dominated mid-century moral philosophy, insisting that moral judgments have a rational basis rooted in facts about human nature and human flourishing.
Major Works
Key Arguments
Click “Philosophy 101” to read the full exploration of each argument.
The Trolley Problem
Foot introduced a thought experiment that has become the most widely discussed scenario in contemporary ethics. A runaway trolley is heading toward five workers on the track. You can divert it to a side track where only one worker stands. Most people agree: divert the trolley. Judith Jarvis Thomson later sharpened the problem by introducing a variant: imagine you are on a footbridge above the tracks. The only way to stop the trolley is to push a heavy man off the bridge into its path. Same arithmetic, one death to save five, yet most people recoil. Why? The Trolley Problem and its variants expose a deep tension between consequentialist reasoning (maximize lives saved) and deontological intuitions (it is wrong to use a person as a mere means). Foot originally developed the scenario to explore the Doctrine of Double Effect: there is a moral difference between harm that is an unintended side effect of a good action and harm that is directly intended as a means to a good end.
Why it matters: Spawned an entire subfield sometimes called 'trolleyology' and has been used in moral psychology, neuroscience, experimental philosophy, and the ethics of autonomous vehicles. The problem remains unsolved, it forces us to confront whether our moral reasoning is governed by principles, consequences, or something deeper.
Natural Goodness and the Revival of Virtue Ethics
Foot argued that moral goodness is a form of natural goodness, the same kind of evaluation we apply when we say a plant has deep roots or an animal has sharp hearing. Just as we evaluate organisms by how well they function as members of their species, we can evaluate humans by how well they exhibit the virtues necessary for a characteristically good human life. Courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom are not arbitrary cultural preferences or mere expressions of feeling, they are as objectively necessary for human flourishing as deep roots are for an oak tree.
Why it matters: Helped launch the modern revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics as a serious alternative to utilitarianism and Kantian deontology. Her naturalistic approach influenced Martha Nussbaum, Rosalind Hursthouse, and Alasdair MacIntyre, and shifted the focus of moral philosophy from 'What should I do?' back to 'What kind of person should I be?'
The Doctrine of Double Effect
Foot explored a principle from medieval Catholic moral theology: there is a crucial moral distinction between harm that you intend as a means to your end and harm that is a foreseen but unintended side effect of pursuing a good end. A doctor who gives a terminally ill patient pain medication knowing it will hasten death is morally different from a doctor who administers a lethal injection. The first intends to relieve suffering; death is a side effect. The second intends death as the means. Foot argued that this distinction, while imperfect, captures something real about our moral thinking that pure consequentialism cannot explain.
Why it matters: Revived serious philosophical attention to the Double Effect principle and connected it to broader debates about the moral significance of intention. Her analysis remains central to medical ethics, just war theory, and the ethics of collateral damage.
Lasting Influence
Revived Aristotelian virtue ethics within analytic philosophy and invented the Trolley Problem, a widely discussed thought experiment in modern ethics.
Your Reading Path
The Companion Guide
Seven eras of philosophy in one volume — reading lists, key terms, journal prompts · $19.99