Thank you to everyone who joined Greg and me for a discussion of Mary Midgley’s ‘mixed community. Greg kindly shared with us what it was really like to do philosophy with Midgley: Besides wisdom and biscuits, she could also happen to recite poetry or make you read it out loud. Here is “The Song of Quoodle” Greg mentions — loving it.

If you would like to read up on the mixed community and Greg’s thinking around it, here are three excellent resources:

Chapter 4 “Animals and Why They Matter”, in his: Mary Midgley. An Introduction, Bloomsbury 2020, 65—91 .

“Midgley at the Intersection of Animal and Environmental Ethics”. Les Ateliers de l’Éthique / The Ethics Forum 13(1), 2008, 143—58.

“Midgley’s Animal and Environmental Ethics: Context and Relevance”, forthcoming in Ellie Robson (Ed.): The Moral Philosophy of Mary Midgley (and its Reception).

Feel free to get in touch with Greg directly for any more questions — as you can tell from our chat, he is a super patient and generous person.

We did establish that the ‘mixed community’ really has been underdeveloped by Midgley. It is a “philosopher’s term”, and as much as philosophers are encouraged to engage in the mess of navigating real moral conflicts, it is not their job to just declare, once and for all, how things ought to be.

I feel (and have argued) that she offers a unique type of casuistry with a dash of utopia. In that regard, another chapter of interest to you could be her “Practical Utopianism”, chapter 2 in her Utopias, Dolphins and Computers. Problems of Philosophical Plumbing, in which she, among other things, explains why pluralism does not need to lead to nihilism.

In our conversation, Greg and I kept bringing up more and more of the complexity which mixed communities inevitably display. Dealing with problems of human-animal-relation is messy and it will be even more so the messier human-human-relations become. And yet. Perhaps the final metaphor we land on — the kaleidoscope — is useful to stress that we can still aim for beauty in all that mess.

Midgley herself, in her “Practical Utopianism”, says:

If we try to work with a world-view which shows us only the complexity of existing facts, we lose our bearings and forget where we are going. And of course these supposedly realistic views aren’t truly realistic either. Every account enshrines some particular ideals rather than others and expresses some dream. Our imagination needs, then, to be stimulated, not from one but from a hundred points on this spectrum. It needs to be stirred constantly from different angles by different aspects of the truth, if it is to keep its power of responding to what goes on. (ibid., 25)

Now, with the wonderful, both visionary and messy material that all the teams are sharing for “Philosophy in the Wild: Finding Hope in Mixed Communities” we are slowly but surely getting close to hundred points concerning our mixed communities. My huge and heartfelt thanks to all of them! And I look forward to reporting more on the ideas and developments in the New Year.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedrynosedprimate.substack.com