Elizabeth Anscombe

What It Covers

Elizabeth Anscombe transformed twentieth century moral philosophy by challenging consequentialism, establishing philosophy of action as a distinct field, and reviving Aristotelian virtue ethics through her groundbreaking 1957 book Intention and influential essay Modern Moral Philosophy.

Key Questions Answered

• •Doctrine of Double Effect: Anscombe distinguished between intended consequences and merely foreseen ones in moral action. Truman intended civilian deaths at Hiroshima as means to end war, making it murder, not collateral damage from targeting military infrastructure with foreseeable civilian casualties.
• •Intention Through Description: Actions carry multiple descriptions simultaneously. A person pumping water moves their arm, operates machinery, and replenishes supply. Intentionality depends on which descriptions the actor endorses when asked why, revealing nested purposes connected by in order to relationships between bodily movements and aims.
• •Why Question Method: Anscombe reveals intentional action patterns by examining when the question why applies. If someone answers with reasons rather than I did not know I was doing that, the action counts as intentional under that description, creating a formal pattern independent of mental states.
• •Consequentialism Critique: Anscombe coined consequentialism to describe the view holding people equally responsible for all action consequences regardless of intention versus foresight. She argued modern moral philosophy wrongly stripped concepts like moral obligation from their Judeo-Christian context, rendering them meaningless in secular frameworks.