Intention.

Oxford: Basil Blackwell,, 1957. First edition, first impression, of Anscombe's first book, the work which established the philosophy of action as a distinct field in modern academic philosophy. This copy contains the blue ink inscription of "Judith G. Edwards, St Hilda's College, Oxford, June 1958" on the front free endpaper. Anscombe taught at Oxford from 1946 to 1970, and it is possible that Edward's annotations and underlinings reflect her participation in Anscombe's lectures. Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (1919-2001), a lifelong student and friend of Wittgenstein, moved to take up his former chair of philosophy at Cambridge in 1970. Intention has its roots in the controversy that Anscombe initiated over Oxford's decision to offer an honorary degree to former US President Harry S. Truman, whom she believed a murderer for his decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her work subsequently examined the conception of act and intention in relation to the justification of wartime atrocity, and the ways in which we make sense of the actions we take. Donald Davidson, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, described Intention as the most important treatment of action since Aristotle. Octavo. Original blue wrappers folding over card boards. Faint pencil price to head of front wrapper. Light rubbing and toning, slight peeling to spine, small mark to centre of p. ix: a very good copy.