Abstract

This paper analyses Mary Midgley’s conception of philosophy and its relationship to the notion of «human nature» in ethics. The first part of the paper critically addresses the thesis shared by two recent essays on the philosophical history of Midgley, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot and Iris Murdoch, according to which the four philosophers have in common a naturalistic perspective aimed at defining the notion of «human nature». Theses interpretations are challenged and, in the second part, the paper focuses on Midgley’s conception of philosophy as «conceptual plumbing» and how it shades light on her use of the natural sciences for philosophical reflection. I then argue that the interpretation of Midgley’s thought as a kind of ethical naturalism is not the only possible one, but that it can be interpreted for its contribution to a philosophical line interested in conceptual elucidation.