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Elizabeth Anscombe

Analytic · Europe · 1919 to 2001

British philosopher who argued that modern moral talk had lost its footing. She brought back attention to intention and character.

What it is

Elizabeth Anscombe (1919 to 2001) was a British philosopher and pupil of Wittgenstein who argued that modern moral philosophy had misused the idea of moral obligation, who coined the word consequentialism, and who wrote the classic study of intentional action. She is counted among the most important philosophers of the twentieth century and among the most important women philosophers of all time.

She was born in Limerick, Ireland, on 18 March 1919, to British parents, and studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford. She became a Catholic in her early teens and remained a committed Catholic. She translated some of Wittgenstein's most important work into English, and she died in 2001. Her writing is often cryptic and difficult, but it has shaped ethics, the philosophy of action and the philosophy of mind.

The main ideas

  • Three bold claims about ethics. In her paper "Modern Moral Philosophy" she argued that moral philosophy is useless until we have an adequate philosophy of psychology, that talk of moral obligation, duty and the moral 'ought' should be dropped, and that the best-known English moral philosophers from Sidgwick onward are, in the end, all alike.
  • Consequentialism. She invented the word to name what those philosophers share: the view that the rightness of an act is settled by its consequences. She pointed out that they accept that killing an innocent person can sometimes be right, which she rejected.
  • A path to virtue ethics. Her paper helped start the modern revival of virtue ethics, the idea that ethics should centre on character and the good life and not on rules of obligation.
  • Intention. In her short book Intention she analysed what it is to act on purpose, and why a person can know what they are doing without watching themselves do it.
  • What does 'I' refer to? In her paper "The First Person" she questioned how the word 'I' works and whether it names a thing at all.
  • Refusing atomic weapons. She opposed the use of atomic weapons at the end of the Second World War.

What it looks like in practice

Picture a student who says, 'The right thing to do is whatever leads to the best result.' Anscombe would ask what makes that a 'must' rather than a preference, and where such a word gets its force once the idea of a law-giver is gone. She would also ask whether it follows that a person may kill an innocent if the numbers work out. The point of the questions is to make the speaker look at what they are actually committed to. This is an illustration of her style, not a report of any conversation.

Books and moments

  • Modern Moral Philosophy is her most famous paper and the one most often credited with reviving virtue ethics.
  • Intention is her main work on action.
  • The First Person is her paper on the word 'I'.
  • Her translations of Wittgenstein made his later work available in English.

Questions and criticism

  • Can ethics do without 'ought'? If the moral 'ought' is dropped, it is fair to ask what is left to guide people who disagree, and whether the idea can be rebuilt on other grounds.
  • Is every consequentialist the same? Her claim that all the well-known English moral philosophers amount to one view is bold, and critics have asked whether it ignores real differences.
  • Hard to read. Her writing is cryptic. Some readers find that it rewards the effort and others that it hides weak arguments.

Close neighbours

Her teacher Wittgenstein has his own page, and the page on Aristotelian virtue ethics describes the tradition her paper helped to revive.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Philosophies they belong to or are close to

Who they connect to

Influenced

  • Alasdair MacIntyre · MacIntyre's After Virtue starts from the diagnosis that Anscombe gave.
  • Philippa Foot · Anscombe and Foot were friends and colleagues whose views on moral language developed together.

Influenced by

  • Aristotle · Anscombe pointed to Aristotle for a moral psychology of intention, virtue and human flourishing.
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein · Anscombe was Wittgenstein's student, translated his Investigations and edited his papers.
  • Thomas Aquinas · Anscombe drew on Aquinas for her account of intention and practical reason.

Other Analytic thinkers

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