G.E.M. Anscombe

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, usually cited as G.E.M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, lived from 18 March 1919 to 5 January 2001 and was a British analytic philosopher who wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language and ethics, a prominent figure of analytical Thomism, a fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical Investigations; her 1958 article Modern Moral Philosophy introduced the term consequentialism into the language of analytic philosophy and had a seminal influence on contemporary virtue ethics, while her monograph Intention of 1957, described by Donald Davidson as the most important treatment of action since Aristotle, is widely considered a foundational text in contemporary philosophy of action with influence in the philosophy of practical reason as well.