Margaret MacDonald (philosopher)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Margaret MacDonald
Born(1903-04-09)9 April 1903
London, England
Died7 January 1956(1956-01-07) (aged 52)
London, England

Margaret MacDonald (9 April 1903

philosopher. She worked in the areas of philosophy of language, political philosophy and aesthetics
.

Life and education

Margaret MacDonald was born in London and abandoned as a child.[2][3]

She was educated at University College London and was awarded a first class degree in philosophy in 1932, followed by a PhD in 1934. Her PhD supervisor was Susan Stebbing[4] who provided MacDonald with financial assistance during her research.[2]

MacDonald joined

G.E. Moore and was part of the inner circle of students that Ludwig Wittgenstein taught.[2] Along with fellow student Alice Ambrose she secretly (since he did not allow this) made notes during Wittgenstein's lectures, which were later published.[5]
They later convinced Wittgenstein to allow them continue to write his lectures down.

Career

From 1937 to 1941 MacDonald taught philosophy at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was also librarian. During the war she was temporary principal in the Board of Trade. This was followed by a lectureship at Bedford College, London.[2] At this time, she was one of a very small number of women teaching philosophy outside of Oxford University.[4] From 1947 she was also a lecturer on Ethics to staff at the Home Office. She became reader in philosophy at Bedford College in 1955.

MacDonald's early articles were criticisms of the work of contemporary philosophers. Later she concentrated on aesthetics, particularly on how language relates to art.[6] She was also interested in political philosophy and published a significant article "Natural Rights",[7] in which she argues against the idea that natural rights are founded on natural law. Her view is summarised by Jonathan Wolff as: "statements of natural rights are akin to decisions, declaring 'here I stand', and [she] ... uses an analogy with another area of critical judgement — in her case literary appreciation — to point out the possibility of rational argument through the presentation of reasons".[8]

Her work attracted substantial attention at the time. Two of her articles were reprinted in the series Logic and Language (1951), which included articles that were representative of current philosophical trends.[4] Having studied with Wittgenstein before coming to Oxford in 1937, she deployed and developed Wittgensteinian themes in her own subsequent work, and it has been argued that this work was an important source of ideas in her close friend Gilbert Ryle's philosophy.[9]

C.A. Mace and Ryle.[4]
She was also the journal's editor from 1948 until 1956.

She died in London in 1956, following heart surgery.[10]

Publications

References

  1. S2CID 236297953
    . Addis, "MacDonald, Margaret (1907–56)", 1997, gives her birthdate as 9 April 1907. However, her birth certificate, and the records of both the National Children's Home and Orphanage, and Girton College, confirm the date of 9 April 1903
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-7923-2808-6
    .
  3. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. 27 Apr. 2022 https://www.encyclopedia.com
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-975469-4
  5. ISBN 0-631-10141-1
    .
  6. ^ MacDonald, Margaret (1954). "Some Distinctive Features of Arguments used in Criticism of the Arts". In Elton, William (ed.). Aesthetics and language. Oxford University Press.
  7. JSTOR 4544427
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-19-923884-2. (author preprint available for download here
    )
  9. S2CID 236297953
    .
  10. doi:10.1093/analys/16.4.73
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_MacDonald_(philosopher)&oldid=1245838957"