Night Waves - 9.15 tonight, Wed 19 January

[Guest]

This might be an interesting programme.

It features 91 year old Mary Midgley who is one of the prominent female moral philosophers. A strong critic of science's claim to answer all the most important questions about existence, she talks tonight about science, religion, the Gaia theory, maturity and the dangers of specialism.

Also on the programme is Havi Carel. Diagnosed with a serious illness at the age of 35, she now explores how philosophy can help us understand illness, well being and happiness and the surprisingly positive side of ill health.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xfg3m

[Lateralthinking1]

.......and interesting it was. Both are in their different, and similar, ways extraordinary, if also ordinary, people.

Mary Midgley

Mary was a contemporary of Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch and Philippa Foot but her first book "Beast and Man" wasn't published until she was 59. She says: "I wrote no books until I was a good 50, and I'm jolly glad because I didn't know what I thought before then." The year was 1978. Richard Dawkins had published "The Selfish Gene" and Desmond Morris was becoming popular. In her book, Mary examined human nature, reacting against the perceived reductionism of sociobiology, and the relativism and behaviorism she saw as prevalent in much of social science. If this sounds remote, we heard in the programme how her vivid, almost literary, use of metaphor has made her writing accessible. For example, the science of "The Selfish Gene" may be evidence based and argumentatively taut but in perspective, it is just one map of many maps or just one angle of vision on the aquarium.

There was also discussion about the way in which developments in nuclear science changed general attitudes to science and to life, how while academic pursuits became more open to women, academia itself has become stifling to the development of broadbrush philiosphy, and of the importance of historical contexts. Plato and Aristotle were not specialists and nor was John Ruskin so specialism was a phenomenon of the 20th Century. Thatcherism, we were told, had its roots in many of the century's changes. In a nod towards the recent debate on "Platform 3" about Michael Gove's proposals, there was an unequivocal statement from Mary in favour of a broad curriculum. She felt that even in higher education, English students should understand scientific terminology. The caller to 5 Live would have felt endorsed. And we had her views on climate change. People would eventually lower their expectations about what the planet could offer, probably following a natural disaster, but not in her lifetime. I couldn't fault the arguments she presented. I found them wholly persuasive because they were so grounded in common sense and reality.

Havi Carel

Havi Cavell studied philosophy for 12 years before she was diagnosed with a serious, degenerative, illness. After the initial shock, she decided to apply her learning to living with that illness in a positive way. In that very personal approach, she found, out of necessity, new maps and saw the aquarium from new angles. Havi noted that while philsophers have written reams about the dying process, they have tended to shy away from the matter of living with a health condition. She has written a book which may very well start to provide an entirely new balance. She is of the clear view that there is a significant difference between disease and illness. The management of disease is the map of the professionals whereas illness is about the whole person who in the real world is not just a physical machine attached crudely to a soul. Illness is about living. So we heard in the programme not only about Havi coping with knowing that she would not live a long life or be able to become a mother but how she also found that life changed for her in very practical ways. A bookshelf, for example, was no longer principally a place which offered endless possibilities for enlightenment but something which had to be manoeuvred around.

But it was the social aspects of illness which arguably created the most significant changes. These could initially seem overwhelming but were also for the good. True friends became apparent while only the fairweather variety disappeared. Health professionals could be upsettingly offhand but wasn't this a sign of their own way of coping and enlightening to view it as such? There is huge enjoyment and achievement from teaching, perhaps particularly when Havi is an attractive young woman who on the basis of appearance doesn't seem ill. This helps in many ways to alter attitudes. I liked her analogy with flying. We may have flown in aeroplanes many times and travelled far. When we are no longer able to do so, we don't consider ourselves ill or disabled. We adjust and find happiness swimming in new endeavours. We could approach all aspects of living in these ways. Havi's book is simply entitled "Illness" and, because it is her, the writer, applying philosophy to her own medical condition it has been received widely as an unusual, powerful and groundbreaking work. For many, I would imagine, it could be a great atlas, and a life changing read.

This Night Waves programme can still be heard in the coming days on the I-Player. I would certainly recommend it.