famous "Quartet" of mid-20th-century philosophers who studied at Oxford together during World War II. These four friends—Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch—revolutionized modern ethics by bringing the field back to everyday human life and reality.
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The Oxford Quartet
Elizabeth Anscombe (G.E.M. Anscombe): Known for her profound work in the philosophy of action and as a leading interpreter of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Her 1958 pamphlet Intention is widely considered a foundational text in the philosophy of action.
Philippa Foot: Renowned for her work in moral philosophy, she is the creator of the famous philosophical dilemma known as the "Trolley Problem." She was instrumental in reviving virtue ethics.
Mary Midgley: Focused heavily on human nature, ethics, and our relationship with animals and the environment. She wrote extensively on why science alone cannot replace moral philosophy.
Iris Murdoch: A highly celebrated novelist as well as a philosopher. She focused on the intersection of art, morality, and the nature of love, arguing that unselfish attention to others is the core of a moral life.
To explore their biographies and how their friendship shaped their ideas, you can check out the joint biography Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, or The Women Are Up to Something by Benjamin Lipscomb.
prominent female philosophers throughout history, such as Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Hypatia, and Simone Weil, but the query for "the 4 female philosophers" almost always points to this influential Oxford Quartet