Sign in

Greg McElwain

@gsmcelwain.bsky.social
536 followers 417 following 58 posts

Professor of Philosophy. Mainly animal/environmental ethics and Mary Midgley. Author of Mary Midgley (tinyurl.com/Mary-Midgley) and Mary Midgley on What Matters (tinyurl.com/Mary-Midgley-on-What-Ma…)

PostsRepliesMedia
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I’m excited to share that my new book on Mary Midgley is available to preorder! It’s due out December 10: www.bloomsbury.com/us/mary-midg... #marymidgley #philsky @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social @bloomsburyphilo.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
78031
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Also what a moment to realise you are casually talking to the remarkable #GillianAllnutt. Listen to her read #Solitude here: youtu.be/3jBRncmRxhE?... #poetry #NorthEast #philosophy #poetrysky #philosophysky @litandphil.bsky.social
youtu.be
Gillian Allnutt reads 'Solitude'
YouTube video by T. S. Eliot Prize
072
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I’ll be there!
041
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Do you have a work in progress you want to share with our network? The CALL FOR ABSTRACTS to our 2026/7 Online Seminar Series is now open. We welcome abstracts on topics within the Women in Parenthesis scope of interest. For more information, see our website: www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/news/
032
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
A CfA for the 2nd Predoctoral Conference on the quartet in Manchester in June: deadline 20 February. For more information about how to submit and attend please see our website: www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/news/
womeninparenthesis.co.uk
News | In Parenthesis
066
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
A @inparenthesis.bsky.social update: Proud to be helping to organise this Symposium that builds on @domlash.bsky.social agenda setting work here. CfA The Quartet-in-Film Symposium: Vice & Violence Winchester in June @uniwinchester.bsky.social www.winchester.ac.uk/research/Our... #filmsky #philsky
winchester.ac.uk
Culture-Media-Text Research Centre - University of Winchester
Find out more about the Culture-Media-Text Research Centre at the University of Winchester.
198
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Bristol University Press @brisunipress.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Mary Midgley saw philosophy as mapping relationships between fields. Though she never fully critiqued economics, Nat Dyer argues her ideas on myths, reductionism & ecology offer a powerful challenge to today’s economic orthodoxy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYNCodkhbrk
021
Reposted by Greg McElwain
PAN Works @panworks.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Please enjoy this piece originally posted by PAN Works Fellow and Virtual Writer in Residence, Mara-Daria Cojocaru, PD Dr. phil., in which she discusses humans and wolves with Professor Greg McElwain. #animals #ethics #wellbeing #compassion #conservation #empathy #communities #intrinsicvalue
medium.com
“This may ultimately make things messier, rather than tidier, on the ground”
Interview with Greg McElwain, Team USA for “Philosophy in the Wild”
032
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Amazing!
020
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Grace Lockrobin @gracelockrobin.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
We were pleased to welcome as one of our key note speakers @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social who spoke about the work of the philosopher Mary Midgley. #ThoughtfulConference2025 #PhilosophyMatters #WorldPhilosophyDay
0104
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Nat Dyer @natjdyer.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I'm doing an online webniar tomorrow at 3pm (UK) with the wonderful @inparenthesis.bsky.social team on 'Mary Midgley among the economists' Looking forward to joining the dots between one of our best recent philosophers and the critique of mainstream economics More info & zoom link below 👇
142
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Ellie Robson @philosophellie.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Mary Midgley and Jane Goodall in 1989. Goodall's influence is clear throughout Midgley's work and central to her claim that philosophy needs ethology
18410
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
We're excited to announce our new Online Seminar Series for the 2025-6 academic year!! We have 5 fantastic talks coming up. For titles and abstracts see our website - and get the dates in your diary! www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/news/ #philsky #philosophy
womeninparenthesis.co.uk
News | In Parenthesis
0143
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
One is the brilliant #EllieRobson @philosophellie.bsky.social on #MaryMidgley and #Animals! Not to be missed and again, what an incredible resource and gift #PhilosophyBites is #philosophy #philsky @inparenthesis.bsky.social #Midgley
0165
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
The wonderful @philosophellie.bsky.social on Mary Midgley’s animal thought.
0121
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
"I suppose in a very admirable and harmless way, I take science to have a religious aspect. That is, it involves people responding to the vastness of the universe." -Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley: An Introduction #marymidgley #philsky
140
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
"We rejoice in the whole of nature and being part of it, as something to which we belong." -Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley: An Introduction #marymidgley #philsky
093
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Back at the very special #dewisacre for more #philosophyinthewild ‘finding hope in mixed communities’ & this time - with the adults! It means the world to us that the adults relished this event, fell in love with the wisdom of #MaryMidgley & that Ned the cat was so happy & involved too 1/3
182
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Back in the garden, for #philosophyinthewild, which has been a truly #mixedcommunity garden this week! 🐑 @stdavidscathedral.bsky.social @inparenthesis.bsky.social #PhilosophyMatters #MaryMidgley #Arts #Poetry #Hope #FindingHopeInMixedCommunities www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/philosophy-i...
081
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
"Central to thinking about animals is the idea of community: a genuine unity of beings which are important to each other." -Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley: An Introduction #marymidgley #philsky
071
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
"How to think involves how to live." -Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley: An Introduction #marymidgley #philsky
081
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
"The world in which the kestrel moves, the world that it sees, is, and always will be, entirely beyond us. That there are such worlds all around us is an essential feature of our world." -Mary Midgley, Beast and Man #marymidgley #philsky
043
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
“Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started.” -Mary Midgley, The Myths We Live By #marymidgley #philsky
1111
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
"The trouble with human beings ([Butler] said) is not really that they love themselves too much; they ought to love themselves more. The trouble is simply that they don’t love others enough." -Mary Midgley, Utopias, Dolphins, and Computers #marymidgley #philsky
173
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Nat Dyer @natjdyer.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The philosopher Mary Midgley undergirds a lot of my thinking (even about economics) I just reread this piece I wrote about her in 2020 and it still holds up pretty well philosophynow.org/issues/140/M...
philosophynow.org
Mary Midgley (1919-2018) | Issue 140 | Philosophy Now
Nat Dyer looks at the humanity of a philosopher who tried to make philosophy more human.
011
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Peter West @peterwest23.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Upcoming workshop on Susan Stebbing and Mary Midgley: ianjameskidd.weebly.com/midgley-steb... @philosophellie.bsky.social Ian Kidd Karl Egerton Me
ianjameskidd.weebly.com
Midgley, Stebbing, and the History of Philosophy
A workshop devoted to the work of Susan Stebbing (1885-1943) and Mary Midgley (1919-2018) and their place in and relation to the history of philosophy. ​ When : 17th July 2025 Where : Monica...
1165
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
"Great philosophers, then, need a combination of gifts that is rare. They must be lawyers as well as poets. They must have both the new vision that points the way we are to go and the logical doggedness that sorts out just what is, and what is not, involved in going there." -Mary Midgley, UDC
0104
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Chris @multiplicityct.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
We are naturally connected: to the wild world, animals, one another. @gsmcelwain.bsky.social has an excellent overview of Mary Midgley's work, which is always relevant and increasingly prominent. From the APA blog. #philsky
blog.apaonline.org
Mary Midgley and The Necessity of Philosophy
Mary Midgley has become an increasingly prominent name in recent years. This could be attributed to her passing in 2018, which, along with the rise in Midgley and “Wartime Quartet” scholarship, has dr...
1155
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Here is a piece on Mary Midgley that I wrote for the @apaphilosophy.bsky.social public philosophy blog! #marymidgley #philsky
blog.apaonline.org
Mary Midgley and The Necessity of Philosophy
Mary Midgley has become an increasingly prominent name in recent years. This could be attributed to her passing in 2018, which, along with the rise in Midgley and “Wartime Quartet” scholarship, has dr...
04416
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
"Our need for each other – our need for all the normal intercourse of human life – is not a weakness but a strength...Of course our dependencies are dangerous, but who wants to live safely like a billiard ball or a doll that never leaves its package?" -Mary Midgley, The Solitary Self #philsky
1131
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Specific grievances wear out; the unchangingness of group hostilities marks them as fraudulent. They are not responses to real external dangers, but fantasies. We erect a glass at the border of our own group, and see our own anger reflected against the darkness behind it. -Mary Midgley, Wickedness
063
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
"We did not expect the earth to be vulnerable, capable of health or sickness, wholeness or injury. But it turns out that we were wrong: the earth is now unmistakably sick." -Mary Midgley, Science and Poetry #marymidgley #philsky #environment
012
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
"It is not true, as has often been suggested, that we cannot be interested in anything unlike ourselves. Both poetry and science show us as being interested in all manner of unlike things." -Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter #marymidgley #philsky
0205
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Call for Abstracts: Women in Parenthesis 2025-6 online Work in Progress series! We welcome talks on the Wartime Quartet and connected figures! Have a look at the link below for previous talks Send 250 words to anabarandalla@me.com by 31st July 2025! www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/news/ #philsky
01512
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
"Inequalities above one's own level tend to be visible: those below it to be hidden." -Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter #marymidgley #philsky
0101
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Ellie Robson @philosophellie.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Reaching the final weeks of editing a 10 chapter collected volume for Palgrave MacMillan - ‘Midgley on Moral Philosophy and Ethics’ 🤯 Which means rereading 10 amazing chapters featuring Midgley on: wickedness, naturalism, Gaia, myopia, environments, the self Authors below! #philsky #philosophy
2217
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
'Humans have always lived in 'mixed community' with other animals' (Mary Midgley) - our new 'philosophy in the wild' project explores the nature of 'mixed community' across 13 global sites! Check it out and please share widely. Next stop Norway! www.notesfromabiscuittin.com
notesfromabiscuittin.com
Notes from a Biscuit Tin - Notes from a Biscuit Tin
Philosophy in the Wild – Finding Hope in Mixed Communities, is a global Women In Parenthesis public philosophy project which builds on the success of Notes from a Biscuit Tin. Between April 2025 and A...
0136
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
"Obsessed with success, with examinations, tests, and record-breaking, with competitive sport, trade, and manufacture, we have drifted into behaving as if life were not worth living except at the top of the dominance hierarchy." -Mary Midgley, Beast and Man #marymidgley #philsky
2199
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
‘To an adult in formal dress, engaged on his statesmanly interactions, the fence is an insuperable barrier. Down below, where it is full of holes, it presents no obstacle at all. The young Homo sapiens, like those of other species present, scurry through it all the time.’ 1/5
132
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
"Philosophers like to talk a lot, but must take listening seriously" My interview with Mara-Daria Cojocaru about Team Wales for "Philosophy in the Wild" @inparenthesis.bsky.social #philsky substack.com/@thedrynosed...
substack.com
"Philosophers like to talk a lot, but must take listening seriously"
Interview with Dr. Elizabeth Macintosh, Team Wales for "Philosophy in the Wild"
0145
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
"Philosophy, in spite of all its tiresome features, is not a luxury but a necessity, because we always have to use it when things get difficult." -Mary Midgley, The Owl of Minerva #marymidgley #philsky
0396
Reposted by Greg McElwain
(women) In Parenthesis @inparenthesis.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
We are delighted to be working with philosopher-poet Mara-Daria Cojocaru (+dolphins, bison, bats & wolves) to explore Mary Midgley's #mixedcommunity. For 12-months an anthrozoological vasculum will collect multispecies poetry from 13 global sites. Find out more www.notesfromabiscuittin.com
notesfromabiscuittin.com
Notes from a Biscuit Tin - Notes from a Biscuit Tin
Philosophy in the Wild – Finding Hope in Mixed Communities, is a global Women In Parenthesis public philosophy project which builds on the success of Notes from a Biscuit Tin. Between April 2025 and A...
143
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Ellie Robson @philosophellie.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Some serious Midgley happening at the BSHP 2025 conference yesterday @enricogalvagni.bsky.social & @gsmcelwain.bsky.social #philsky
1142
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
"When the concepts we are living by work badly, they don’t usually drip audibly through the ceiling or swamp the kitchen floor. They just quietly distort and obstruct our thinking." -Mary Midgley, Utopias, Dolphins and Computers
052
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Looking forward to it!
030
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
"Wisdom, and therefore philosophy, comes into its own when things become dark and difficult rather than when they are clear and straightforward. That -- it seems to me -- is why it is so important." -Mary Midgley, The Owl of Minerva
084
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Dr Elizabeth Mackintosh @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A #PhilosophyMatters #PhiloFortnight #BPF2025 and early Mother’s Day blog post: The Case for Plato: Why Kids Need Philosophy (and Philosophy Needs Kids) Thank you to my own lovely children and all my students for the conversations. Philosophy happens with you - not at you! A fantastic quote 1/3
184
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
"Everyday thinking – the thinking by which we live – does not just need to be described and recorded, it needs also to be criticized, to be examined, to be taken seriously, even in its most lurid or odious manifestations." -Mary Midgley, The Ethical Primate
062
Reposted by Greg McElwain
Jonathan Floyd @jonathanfloyd.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
These are some of the books I'm thinking with today @rebeccabuxton.bsky.social @gsmcelwain.bsky.social @wendysalkin.bsky.social @matthewblongo.bsky.social @jowolff.bsky.social @ecpr-nptmethods.bsky.social @drelizabethmac1.bsky.social It would be odd not to share this in 'public' given the topic.
1217
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
"Is philosophy like plumbing? I have made this comparison a number of times, wanting to stress that philosophizing is not just grand and elegant and difficult, it is also needed. It isn’t optional." -Mary Midgley, Utopias, Dolphins and Computers
053