Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

by Clare Mac Cumhaill

Though ‘The Philosopher’s Defence of Morality’ was Philippa’s first published article, her first publication was a 1951 critical review of The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer, a collected volume of essays by contemporary philosophers on the great Warburgian philosopher’s work. ‘[R]eading these essays’, she complained, ‘I found that I could no longer recall the peculiar excellence of Cassirer’s work, which immediately impressed me again when I returned to the original.’[198] Her final word in ethics, Natural Goodness, reveals hidden traces of Warburgian influence, woven into the fabric of her own philosophical thought. For Ernst Cassirer, each organism is surrounded by its own environment, its Umwelt.