Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch was a British philosopher and novelist whose work in moral philosophy challenged the dominant analytical and existentialist approaches by emphasizing the moral significance of attention, love, and the perception of individual reality. Her concept of 'unselfing' — the disciplined attention to the reality of other people and the world — and her Platonic defense of the Good as a transcendent moral reality make her one of the most distinctive ethical philosophers of the 20th century.
Key Ideas
Key Contributions
- ● Developed the concept of moral attention — the disciplined, loving perception of the reality of other people as the central moral activity
- ● Argued for 'unselfing' — the moral discipline of overcoming egoism through attention to what is real and other
- ● Defended a Platonic conception of the Good as a transcendent moral reality that provides the orientation for moral life
- ● Critiqued both existentialist voluntarism and analytical moral philosophy for their neglect of inner moral life and moral perception
Core Questions
Key Claims
- ✓ Moral life is not primarily about dramatic choices but about the quality of one's attention to reality — seeing others clearly and justly
- ✓ Unselfing — the disciplined overcoming of the ego's fantasies — is the fundamental moral task
- ✓ The Good is real and transcendent — it provides the orientation for moral life, even if it cannot be fully grasped
- ✓ Art, at its best, teaches us to see — it develops the attention and humility that moral life requires
- ✓ Existentialism and analytical philosophy both fail because they neglect the inner life — the texture of consciousness and moral perception
Biography
Life
Jean Iris Murdoch was born on July 15, 1919, in Dublin, Ireland. She studied classics and philosophy at Oxford and taught philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford, for many years. She was one of the first academics to engage with Sartre's existentialism in Britain. She published twenty-six novels alongside her philosophical work. She died on February 8, 1999.
Legacy
Murdoch's moral philosophy, with its emphasis on attention, love, and moral perception, has influenced virtue ethics, the philosophy of literature, and feminist philosophy.
Methods
Notable Quotes
"{'text': 'Attention is the natural prayer of the soul.', 'source': 'The Sovereignty of Good (quoting Malebranche)', 'year': 1970}"
"{'text': 'Love is the perception of individuals.', 'source': 'The Sovereignty of Good', 'year': 1970}"
"{'text': 'We can only move properly in a world that we can see, and what we can see depends on what we are.', 'source': 'The Sovereignty of Good', 'year': 1970}"
Major Works
- Sartre: Romantic Rationalist Book (1953)
- The Sovereignty of Good Essay (1970)
- Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals Treatise (1992)
Influenced by
- Plato · Intellectual Influence
- Simone Weil · Intellectual Influence
- Ludwig Wittgenstein · Intellectual Influence
- Elizabeth Anscombe · Contemporary/Peer
Sources
- The Sovereignty of Good (Routledge Classics)
- Iris Murdoch by Miles Leeson
- The Cambridge Companion to Iris Murdoch (forthcoming)
External Links
Translations
Discussions
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