Philippa Foot

Philippa Ruth Foot (née Bosanquet; October 3, 1920 – October 3, 2010) was an English philosopher known for her contributions to contemporary virtue ethics. Her work was influenced by Aristotelian ethical theories and played a significant role in revitalizing normative ethics within analytic philosophy.

Foot was born in Owston Ferry, North Lincolnshire. Her parents were Esther Cleveland (1893–1980) and Captain William Sidney Bence Bosanquet (1893–1966), who served in the Coldstream Guards of the British Army. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Frederick Albert Bosanquet, a barrister and judge who held the position of Common Serjeant of London from 1900 to 1917. Her maternal grandfather was Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.

She received private education before attending Somerville College, Oxford, from 1939 to 1942, where she earned a first-class degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. Her association with Somerville College continued throughout her life, despite a break during her government service from 1942 to 1947. Foot served as a lecturer in philosophy from 1947 to 1950, then as a fellow and tutor from 1950 to 1969, followed by a position as senior research fellow from 1969 to 1988, and was made an honorary fellow from 1988 until her death in 2010.

During her academic career, Foot engaged in extensive debate with G. E. M. Anscombe, learning about Wittgenstein's analytic philosophy and its implications for ethics. Her work in the 1950s and 1960s aimed to re-establish Aristotelian ethics in modern philosophy, challenging dominant theories such as deontology and consequentialism. She was particularly known for her critiques of non-cognitivism and Nietzsche, which contributed to a resurgence of normative ethics within the analytic tradition.

Foot held several visiting professorships in the United States, including at Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and the City University of New York. In 1976, she was appointed Griffin Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, a position she held until 1991. She divided her time between the United States and Britain during this period.

Contrary to some claims, Foot was not a founder of Oxfam; she joined the organization approximately six years after its founding. She was an atheist and was once married to the historian M. R. D. Foot. She also shared a flat with philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch at one point. Foot passed away in 2010 on her 90th birthday. She resided at 15 Walton Street from 1972 until her death, and this house is marked with an Oxfordshire Blue Plaque in her honor.

In addition to her philosophical work, Foot is credited, alongside Judith Jarvis Thomson, with inventing the trolley problem, a significant thought experiment in ethics.

Her critique of non-cognitivism argued against the view that moral judgments do not express propositions and are not truth-apt. She defended the view that moral judgments can be factual and rational, emphasizing the cognitive and truth-evaluable nature of moral reasoning. Her work also addressed the moral relevance of “thick” ethical concepts—those that carry descriptive and evaluative content—such as cruelty or cowardice, which she believed are integral to moral judgments and practical reasoning.

Her evolving perspective on the question "Why be moral?" included early assertions that virtues such as justice, temperance, and courage are generally beneficial for individuals. Later, she argued that the rationality of virtues concerning others—such as justice and benevolence—rests on contingent motivations rather than intrinsic moral truths. Her later work, notably in the book *Natural Goodness*, explores the relationships between practical reason, biological function, and ethical evaluation, proposing that the good involves the proper functioning of an animal’s faculties within its species.