G. E. M. Anscombe, English philosopher, was educated at Sydenham High School and St. Hugh's College, Oxford, where she read Literae Humaniores (Greats). She went as a research student to the University of Cambridge, where she became a pupil of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). He and Aristotle were the most important influences on her philosophical thought. Anscombe became a Roman Catholic while in her teens, and her Catholicism was also a shaping influence. She was a Fellow for many years of Somerville College, Oxford, and held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1970 until 1986. A philosopher of great range, she made important contributions to ethics, philosophy of mind and action, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic, and philosophy of language. Much of her most interesting work was in the history of philosophy; her discussions of ancient, medieval, and modern philosophers combine...