Quotation
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“Plumbing and philosophy are both activities that arise because elaborate cultures like ours have, beneath their surface, a fairly complex system which is usually unnoticed, but which sometimes goes wrong.”
Mary Midgley · Moral philosophy · Modern · 1992
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a defence of philosophy's usefulness that refuses to make it glamorous. Under a culture, as under a house, there is a system of concepts that is unnoticed until it leaks. Philosophy is the awkward work of finding the leak. A competing reading hears an anti-theoretical claim, as if she thought abstract questions were a waste beside practical repairs. The lecture's point is that the practical repair sometimes is the abstract question: a confused concept of responsibility, or of nature, will keep producing the same wet ceiling. The sentence is from 'Philosophical Plumbing' (1992). Beast and Man, already in this library, argues that we are animals rather than machines or blank paper. This lecture is about what philosophy is for. The two claims fit. They are not the same sentence. She is arguing against the idea that philosophy is either a luxury or a superstition.
Did Mary Midgley really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Midgley's comparison in the 1992 lecture 'Philosophical Plumbing', reprinted in collections of her essays. The wording is hers. It is not the sentence from Beast and Man, already in this library, that we are animals.
Where it comes from
'Philosophical Plumbing', Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture (1992)
Approximate date: 1992.
How to use it
A repeated row in a team about what counts as a person's own choice, which no new procedure seems to settle, is the sort of leak she means. Changing the form again may not help if the concept underneath is muddled. The sentence does not say every practical problem is philosophical. It says some of them are, and that they will not be fixed only at the surface.
A mindset reading
Usefulness, on this comparison, includes work you hope not to think about. The habit is to look for the unnoticed system when the same trouble keeps returning. It is also a warning against calling that work more dignified than plumbing.
Understand the philosophy
The 1992 lecture compares philosophy to plumbing in order to say both are necessary maintenance. The key image is a complex system under the surface. Beast and Man (1978) is the book about human animals and is a separate card. The Myths We Live By is a later book about the imaginative patterns cultures live inside, and it is a further card. The lecture is not a summary of either book.
- knowledge
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a defence of philosophy's usefulness that refuses to make it glamorous. Under a culture, as under a house, there is a system of concepts that is unnoticed until it leaks. Philosophy is the awkward work of finding the leak. A competing reading hears an anti-theoretical claim, as if she thought abstract questions were a waste beside practical repairs. The lecture's point is that the practical repair sometimes is the abstract question: a confused concept of responsibility, or of nature, will keep producing the same wet ceiling. The sentence is from 'Philosophical Plumbing' (1992). Beast and Man, already in this library, argues that we are animals rather than machines or blank paper. This lecture is about what philosophy is for. The two claims fit. They are not the same sentence. She is arguing against the idea that philosophy is either a luxury or a superstition.
Did Mary Midgley really say this?
Well attested. Midgley's comparison in the 1992 lecture 'Philosophical Plumbing', reprinted in collections of her essays. The wording is hers. It is not the sentence from Beast and Man, already in this library, that we are animals.
Which work is it in?
'Philosophical Plumbing', Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture (1992) Approximate date: 1992.