Elizabeth Anscombe

G.E.M. Anscombe was a British philosopher and one of the most important analytic philosophers of the twentieth century. Her monograph Intention transformed the philosophy of action, and her essay Modern Moral Philosophy revived virtue ethics and introduced the term "consequentialism" into philosophical discourse.

Anscombe was a devoted student of Wittgenstein and a committed Thomist Catholic, combining analytic precision with a robust metaphysics of human action rooted in practical reason. Her opposition to Truman's honorary degree from Oxford — on the grounds that he was a mass murderer — was a rare act of institutional moral courage.