Elizabeth Anscombe Quotes

G. E. The quotes below are attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe, organized by topic.

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“But we lay people are not less called to the Christian life, in which the critical question is: "Where does the compass-needle of your mind and will point?" This is tested above all by our reactions when it costs or threatens to cost something to be a Christian. One should be glad if it does, rather than complain! If we will not let it cost anything; if we succumb to the threat of "losing our life", then our religion is indistinguishable from pure worldliness.”
Wikiquote

“The denial of any distinction between foreseen and intended consequences, as far as responsibility is concerned, was not made by Sidgwick in developing any one 'method of ethics'; he made this important move on behalf of everybody and just on its own account; and I think it plausible to suggest that this move on the part of Sidgwick explains the difference between old-fashioned Utilitarianism and the consequentialism, as I name it, which marks him and every English academic moral philosopher since him.”
Here Anscombe coined the word "consequentialism".

“Intention appears to be something that we can express, but which brutes (which e.g. do not give orders) can have , though lacking any distinct expression of intention. For a cat's movements in stalking a bird are hardly to be called an expression of intention. One might as well call a car's stalling the expression of its being about to stop. Intention is unlike emotion in this respect, that the expression of it is purely conventional; we might say 'linguistic', if we will allow certain bodily movements with a conventional meaning to be included in language.”
Intention (1957)
“Here Anscombe coined the word "consequentialism".”
The denial of any distinction between foreseen and intended consequences, as far as responsibility is concerned, was not made by Sidgwick in developing any one 'method of ethics'; he made this important move on behalf of everybody and just on its own account; and I think it plausible to suggest that this move on the part of Sidgwick explains the difference between old-fashioned Utilitarianism and

“Christian life meant a separation from the standards of that world: you couldn't be a Baal-worshipper, you couldn't sacrifice to idols, be a sodomite, practice infanticide, compatibly with the Christian allegiance. That is not to say that Christians were good; we humans are a bad lot and our lives as Christians even if not blackly and grossly wicked are usually very mediocre.”
Wikiquote
“Those who try to make room for sex as mere casual enjoyment pay the penalty: they become shallow. At any rate the talk that reflects and commends this attitude is always shallow. They dishonour their own bodies; holding cheap what is naturally connected with the origination of human life.”
Wikiquote

Attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe:

“An action is intentional under a description.”

Attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe:

“The truth of a description is no guarantee that the description picks out an intentional action.”

Attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe:

“The notion of moral obligation, in any quasi-legal sense, has no purchase outside a divine law conception of ethics.”
Attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe:

“It is not profitable for us at present to do moral philosophy.”
Attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe:

“We cannot in principle dispense with the concept of human flourishing in moral evaluation.”