Philosophy is about concepts.

What it is to be moral, to be in love, or belong to the human species.

And these concepts pervade every aspect of our lives.

Yet, what images come to mind when you think of Emmanuel Kant, David Hume, and René Descartes?

For many of us, we imagine Descartes in his armchair, Hume at his desk, and Kant on one of his solitary wards.

We certainly don't imagine these figures wearing boiler suits.

For Mary Midley, the image of a philosopher withdrawn from the realities of everyday affairs

represents precisely where philosophy has gone wrong.

For Midgley, philosophy is best understood, not as an exercise of self-indulgent scholarship,

but as a sort of plumbing.

Our concepts run through our societies like pipes through our homes.

And it's the job of the philosopher, that is, the plumber, to examine the pipes and keep the water from swamping the kitchen floor.

Joining us to discuss the philosophy of Mary Midgley is Dr. Ellie Robson. Dr. Robson is a British

Society for the History of Philosophy postdoctoral fellow and teaching associates at Nottingham

University. Ellie, whose work primarily focuses on the history of philosophy and meta-ethics,

is one of the leading scholars of the philosophy of Mary

Midley's life and work.

In this episode, she'll illustrate Midley's meta-philosophy and meta-ethics through her

analysis of the concept of beastliness.

Let's take up the floorboards and see what's leaking. Hello and welcome to episode 132 of the Panseye cast.

I'm the treacherous wolf, that is Jack Symes, and I'm delighted to be joined once again

by one of our newest co-hosts, stepping out of the ivory tower and into the jungle.

...