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Iris Murdoch as Educator
In this chapter, I address the central and vital role of education in Iris Murdoch’s philosophy. Beginning with her (Platonic) idea of life as a...
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Fields of Force: Murdoch on Axioms, Duties, and Eros (MGM Chapter 17)
Iris Murdoch’s interpreters have often tried to read her as putting forward an alternative form of ethical foundationalism. On this reading, Murdoch...
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Murdoch’s Question of the Work of Art: The Dialogue Between Western and Japanese Conceptions of Unity (MGM Chapters 1 and 8)
I examine Murdoch’s discussion of the unity of the artwork in Chapter 1 of MGM and the continuation of this theme in her discussion of Japanese...
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Unity and Art in a Mood of Scepticism (MGM Chapter 1)
The way that Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals begins may seem perplexing since it does not state in a clear way what the aims and purposes of the...
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Iris Murdoch’s Ontological Argument (MGM Chapter 13)
Iris Murdoch develops a version of the Ontological Argument as a moral argument for the existence of a transcendent and perfect Platonic Good. I...
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The Metaphysics of Morals and Politics (MGM Chapter 12)
Murdoch’s metaphysics attends to different forms of thought and practice, showing connections and differences. She recognises the sheer...
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Reading Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals: An Introduction
Iris Murdoch’s late major work Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals is rich in unusual philosophical insight, but frequently found difficult, not least...
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The Urge to Write: Of Murdoch on Plato’s Demiurge
The Timaeus is difficult, and Murdoch has two strands of thought about it. On the one hand she thinks it a defence of Forms, and on the other hand...
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Reading Iris Murdoch's Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
Metaphysics as a Guide to Moralswas Iris Murdoch’s major philosophical testament and a highly original and ambitious attempt to talk about our time....
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‘We Are Fantasising Imaginative Animals’ (MGM Chapter 11)
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals’s Chapter XI on imagination is central to the book. It is physically located (almost) in the middle and considers a...
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‘I Think I Disagree’: Murdoch on Wittgenstein and Inner Life (MGM Chapter 9)
After receiving a copy of Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Murdoch’s friend Brian Medlin writes back: ‘So far I think I disagree with what you say...
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Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals: The Debate Between Literature and Philosophy
Iris Murdoch at her best is a brilliant prose stylist, but in her late philosophy her writing often appears dutiful and hard-won. Remarks about the...
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Vision and Encounter in Moral Thinking (MGM Chapter 15)
Iris Murdoch thinks that ‘the activity and imagery of vision is at the centre of human consciousness’, ever re-orienting us to ‘reflection,...
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The Gifford-Driven Genesis and Subliminal Stylistic Construction of Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
This essay begins with fresh research into Iris Murdoch’s drafts for her Gifford Lectures recently acquired by the Iris Murdoch archive in Kingston...
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Which Void? (MGM Chapter 18)
In Chapter 18 of Murdoch’s Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals the concept of ‘void’ is offered as a label for a fourth dimension of moral thought,...
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Fact and Value (MGM Chapter 2)
For Murdoch the importance of the fact–value dichotomy is not to suggest that value is not real. Rather this separation is required in order to keep...
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Disciplines of Attention: Iris Murdoch on Consciousness, Criticism, and Thought (MGM Chapters 6–8)
This chapter explores the relevance of Iris Murdoch’s concept of consciousness for literary studies. In an examination of Chapters 6–8, I summarise...
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Schopenhauer and the Mystical Solution of the Riddle (MGM Chapter 3)
In Metaphysics as a guide to morals Arthur Schopenhauer is one of Iris Murdoch’s guiding stars. She explores and explains his philosophy in several...
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Schelling’s Reception in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
This book examines the various ways in which the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling was read and responded to by British readers and writers...
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Towards a Modern Reading of Schelling
The conclusion traces a path through the responses to Schelling in British fin de siècle literature into modernist and twentieth century readings of...