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Contents

Biographical

Anscombe, Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret (1919–2001)

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-DD081-1
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DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-DD081-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved June 03, 2026, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/anscombe-gertrude-elizabeth-margaret-1919-2001/v-1

List of works

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1981) Collected Philosophical Papers, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 3 vols.

    (The definitive edition of Anscombe’s works.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1957a) Intention, Oxford: Blackwell; 2nd edn, 1963.

    (On the concepts of action, intention and a reason for action.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1957b) ‘Mr. Truman’s Degree’, privately published pamphlet; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 3, 62–71.

    (A popular work attacking President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb and defending an ‘absolutist’ account of the prohibition of murder.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1958) ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, Philosophy 33; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 3, 26–42.

    (Counselling a revival of ancient forms of ethical theory especially that of Aristotle; defines and attacks ‘consequentialism’.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1959) An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s ‘Tractatus’, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press; 2nd edn, 1971.

    (An introduction to some aspects of the teachings of Frege, Russell and the early Wittgenstein.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. and Geach, P. (1961) Three Philosophers, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    (The first essay, an interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine of substance, is by Anscombe.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1963) ‘The Two Kinds of Error in Action’, Journal of Philosophy 60: 393–401; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 3, 3–9.

    (On the role of knowledge and intention in morals and in criminal law.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1965a) ‘The Intentionality of Sensation’, in R.J. Butler (ed.) Analytical Philosophy, 2nd series, New York: Barnes & Noble, 143–158; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 2, 3–20.

    (On the concept of ‘an object of perception’.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1965b) ‘Thought and Action in Aristotle’, in R. Bambrough (ed.) New Essays on Plato and Aristotle, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 158–180; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 1, 66–80.

    (An interpretation and critique of Aristotle’s conception of deliberation.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1971) ‘Causality and Determination’, inaugural lecture, Cambridge University; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 2, 133–147.

    (Defends a much looser account of the notion of a cause than is prevalent in contemporary philosophy; the essay ends with a very difficult discussion of freedom of the will.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1974) ‘The First Person’, in S. Guttenplan (ed.) Mind and Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 45–65; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 2, 21–36.

    (On the first person and self-conscious thought.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1978) ‘Rules, Rights and Promises’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy 3: 318–323; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 3, 97–106.

    (On the genesis of the concepts of a rule and of a right.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1979) ‘Under a Description’, Nous 13: 219–233; repr. in G.E.M. Anscombe (1981), vol. 2, 208–219.

    (A response to critics of Intention, which clarifies some of its teachings.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1982a) ‘Action, Intention and Double Effect’, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 56: 12–25.

    (A defence, from a modern point of view, of some aspects of the moral philosophy of Thomas Aquinas.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1982b) ‘Murder and the Morality of Euthanasia’, in Euthanasia: A Clinical Perspective, London: Linacre Centre, 23–36; repr. in L. Gormally (ed.) Euthanasia, Clinical Practice and the Law, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1994, 37–50.

    (A semi-popular attempt at a definition of murder as a moral category.)

  • Anscombe, G.E.M. (1989) ‘Von Wright on Practical Reason’, in L. Hahn and P. Schilpp (eds) The Philosophy of Georg Heinrik von Wright, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 376–404; repr. in R. Hursthouse, G. Lawrence and W. Quinn (eds) Virtues and Reasons, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, 1–34.

    (An important revision of the doctrine of Intention concerning practical reason.)

References and further reading

  • Bennett, J. (1966) ‘Whatever the Consequences’, Analysis 26: 83–102.

    (A spirited attack on the ‘absolutism’ of Anscombe 1957 and 1958.)

  • Davidson, D. (1963) ‘Actions, Reasons and Causes’, Journal of Philosophy 60: 685–700; repr. in D. Davidson (1980), 83–102.

    (An influential attack on the notion, apparently present in Anscombe’s Intention, that the reason why an action was performed is in no sense a cause of it.)

  • Davidson, D. (1978) ‘Intending’, in Y. Yovel (ed.) Philosophy of History and Action, Dordrecht: Reidel, 41–60; repr. in D. Davidson (1980), 83–102.

    (Attacking Anscombe’s methodological claim in Intention that the notion of intentional action should be treated in advance of that of intention.)

  • Davidson, D. (1980) Essays on Actions and Events, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    (The first six essays in this volume present the most influential alternative to Anscombe’s philosophy of action; despite the doctrinal divergence, they have contributed greatly to the currency of her central concepts and distinctions.)

  • Diamond, C. and Teichmann, J. (1979) Intention and Intentionality, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    (A volume honouring Anscombe and containing many important criticisms of her work.)

  • Foot, P. (1967) ‘Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect’, Oxford Review 5: 5–15; repr. in P. Foot, Virtues and Vices, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978, 5–15.

    (An attack, friendlier than that of Bennett (1966), on Anscombe’s ‘absolutism’; Foot’s method of relating abstract principles to her picturesque examples was of great influence in later moral philosophy.)

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Citing this article:
Thompson, Michael. Bibliography. Anscombe, Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret (1919–2001), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-DD081-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/anscombe-gertrude-elizabeth-margaret-1919-2001/v-1/bibliography/anscombe-gertrude-elizabeth-margaret-1919-2001-bib.
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