Greg McElwain
LightNews LightNews
banner
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
Greg McElwain
@gsmcelwain.bsky.social
490 followers 410 following 48 posts
Professor of Philosophy. Mainly animal/environmental ethics and Mary Midgley.

Author of Mary Midgley: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2020): https://tinyurl.com/Mary-Midgley & Mary Midgley on What Matters: Conversations on Science, Ethics, and Nature (2026).
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
Greg McElwain @gsmcelwain.bsky.social · Feb 20
I'm halfway through a sabbatical dedicated to writing a book based on my yearly interviews with Mary Midgley from 2011-18 for @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social.

I'm curious about which topics people are most interested in? Feel free to DM!
Reposted by Greg McElwain
inparenthesis.bsky.social
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/
News | In Parenthesis
www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk
January 27, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
drelizabethmac1.bsky.social
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
Culture-Media-Text Research Centre - University of Winchester
Find out more about the Culture-Media-Text Research Centre at the University of Winchester.
www.winchester.ac.uk
January 24, 2026 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
brisunipress.bsky.social
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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYNCodkhbrk
January 16, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
panworks.bsky.social
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
“This may ultimately make things messier, rather than tidier, on the ground”
Interview with Greg McElwain, Team USA for “Philosophy in the Wild”
medium.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:07 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
Amazing!
stevecooke.org Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 21d
It's taken a few years, but I've finally framed and hung the painting I did of Mary Midgley shortly after her death. Now, she can stare over my shoulder when I'm in an online meeting or seminar, judging people who start on any bullshit.
Colourful pen and ink portrait of an elderly woman in a stylish hat.
January 12, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
gracelockrobin.bsky.social
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
November 19, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
natjdyer.bsky.social
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 👇
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
philosophellie.bsky.social
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
October 7, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
inparenthesis.bsky.social
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
News | In Parenthesis
www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk
September 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
drelizabethmac1.bsky.social
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
nigelwarburton.bsky.social Nigel Warburton @nigelwarburton.bsky.social · Aug 17
Just released - two new episodes of the Philosophy Bites podcast - listen here (and soon on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.philosophybites etc) Philosophybites.libsyn.com
Philosophy Bites
EDIT_HERE
Philosophybites.libsyn.com
August 17, 2025 at 11:16 AM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
The wonderful @philosophellie.bsky.social on Mary Midgley’s animal thought.
nigelwarburton.bsky.social Nigel Warburton @nigelwarburton.bsky.social · Aug 17
Just released - two new episodes of the Philosophy Bites podcast - listen here (and soon on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.philosophybites etc) Philosophybites.libsyn.com
Philosophy Bites
EDIT_HERE
Philosophybites.libsyn.com
August 17, 2025 at 1:42 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
August 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
August 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
drelizabethmac1.bsky.social
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
July 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
drelizabethmac1.bsky.social
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...
July 22, 2025 at 4:34 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
July 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"How to think involves how to live."

-Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley: An Introduction

#marymidgley #philsky
June 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
June 23, 2025 at 4:20 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
“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
June 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
June 9, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
natjdyer.bsky.social
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...
Mary Midgley (1919-2018) | Issue 140 | Philosophy Now
Nat Dyer looks at the humanity of a philosopher who tried to make philosophy more human.
philosophynow.org
June 4, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
peterwest23.bsky.social
Upcoming workshop on Susan Stebbing and Mary Midgley: ianjameskidd.weebly.com/midgley-steb...

@philosophellie.bsky.social
Ian Kidd
Karl Egerton
Me
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...
ianjameskidd.weebly.com
June 2, 2025 at 9:39 AM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
"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
June 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Greg McElwain
multiplicityct.bsky.social
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
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...
blog.apaonline.org
May 30, 2025 at 3:37 PM
gsmcelwain.bsky.social
Here is a piece on Mary Midgley that I wrote for the @apaphilosophy.bsky.social public philosophy blog!

#marymidgley #philsky
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...
blog.apaonline.org
May 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM