Aims
This course aims to:
• increase knowledge and appreciation of Iris Murdoch’s writings – both philosophical and fictional
• increase knowledge of the context of Murdoch’s philosophical writings (from Plato to Sartre and Weil) as well as your personal critical response
• further your own moral philosophy in terms of what it is about Murdoch’s moral philosophy that you agree or disagree with, and for what reasons
Content
After a brief biography of Iris Murdoch, I dive straight into the relation between Murdoch’s literary fiction and her philosophy. I make the case that in spite of some weaknesses as a writer (that some novels are ‘loose, baggy monsters’, some dialogue is stilted and some plots contrived all deserve comment) there is sufficient reason to approach Murdoch’s fictional writing as literary fiction as opposed to mere genre fiction. Then we address the question whether Murdoch’s novels count as ‘philosophical novels’ and if so what educational value they might possess. We examine some of the main philosophical and literary influences of Murdoch in the second part of this session.
Session 2 lays the foundations for Murdoch’s moral philosophy and starts with some comment on Murdoch’s system of truth, beauty and goodness and how this system re-appropriates terms from traditional religion such as prayer and grace. We shall look at Murdoch’s use of the ontological argument to a moral end, her views on the fact-value distinction, her virtue ethics and how her moral views are manifest in ‘kestrel moments’ and in ‘mother and daughter in law’ cases. For each theme, we start with the philosophy (don’t worry if you haven’t studied philosophy before as nothing will be assumed) and end with an exploration on how Murdoch’s fiction helps us to understand her philosophy.
Session 3 examines the influence of Plato on Murdoch, and in particular Murdoch’s consistent, creative play with Plato’s story of the prisoners in the cave from Republic (7.514ff) throughout her fiction. I shall take around ten or so quotations from the relevant passage from Book Seven of Plato’s Republic and then record instances in Murdoch’s fiction where the author alludes to the detail.
Session 4 looks at seven female characters by way of case studies of those who are not able to free themselves from the cave and those who are able to escape. A great deal of Murdoch’s fiction explores good characters, those who only seem good and those who are inhibited by falling under the spell of enchanter figures. The moral character formation of several female characters examined in this session represents the scope of moral journeys ranging from failure to success. We shall focus on, among others, Hannah Crean-Smith who is the ethereal, eponymous, tragic heroine of The Unicorn. Ann Peronett in An Unofficial Rose, Morgan Browne in A Fairly Honourable Defeat, Dora Greenfield in The Bell, Honor Klein in A Severed Head, and Patti O’Driscoll from The Time of the Angels.
In the final session we shall trace repeated motifs of violence and peace in the fiction of Murdoch. There are extensive references to peace throughout Murdoch’s fiction and a few telling passages in her philosophy. There are lots of influences on Murdoch’s view including her Quaker background, Platonic scholarship (The Laws 803d and Crito 49d) and interest in Buddhism (the doctrine of ahimsa). The peace in question is personal rather than between states, positive peace as opposed to negative peace (the discussion will draw on the philosophical pacifist literature here) and linked to virtue theory. I shall make use of two literary fictional case studies: John Ducane from The Nice and the Good and Peter Mir from The Green Knight as both these characters surnames means ‘peace’. At the end of this session a little time will be taken on how Murdoch’s philosophy may be used to the practical end of increasing our well-being.
Presentation of the course
Each of the five sessions will begin with a prompt (cartoon, or extract from the author’s philosophical or fictional work) followed by a presentation from the course director (informal and lecture style) that outlines the main philosophical arguments which should provoke discussion (whole group or discussion in small groups). We shall use close readings of Murdoch’s fiction in order to clarify her philosophy.
Course sessions
1. Who was Iris Murdoch (1919-99)? Following a brief biography, we shall examine the vexed question as to whether Murdoch is a ‘philosophical novelist’ as well as examine the many philosophical influences on Murdoch’s writing (both philosophy and fiction) and the main literary influences.
2. Murdoch’s Moral System. Murdoch substitutes ‘the Good’ for God in her philosophy; advances some interesting views on the fact/value distinction, virtue ethics, and famously talks about ‘kestrel moments’ and the case of ‘the mother and daughter in law’. We shall look at these themes in order to build up a picture of Murdoch’s moral philosophy.
3. Allusions to Plato’s Cave in Murdoch’s Fiction. In this session we shall look at a selection of cases where Murdoch makes creative play with Plato’s simile of the cave and talk about how this informs the reader about Murdoch’s philosophy.
4. Prisoners and Escapologists. We shall look at various moral and immoral characters from Murdoch’s fiction, and in particular focus on seven female characters who attempt to escape from their situation with varying degrees of success.
5. Repeated motifs of violence and peace. In the final session we shall look at repeated motifs of violence and peace in Murdoch’s fiction as well as how her writing links to well-being.
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to have fun reading Iris Murdoch’s novels and to develop a view of some of the novel’s themes
• to be able to provide a coherent answer if asked ‘what is Iris Murdoch’s philosophy all about?’
• to be able to provide a coherent answer to the question ‘what do you think of Iris Murdoch’s philosophy?’
Required reading
No prior reading is essential but it is useful to gain some acquaintance of both Murdoch’s philosophy and fiction.
Iris Murdoch has two main works of Philosophy (any edition):
Murdoch, Iris, Existentialists and Mystics, editor Peter Conradi (Penguin, London, 1999) ISBN 0140264922
Look at the chapters entitled: ‘Vision and Choice in Morality’; ‘The Sublime and the Good’; ‘The Idea of Perfection’; and ‘The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts’.
Murdoch, Iris, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (Vintage, London, 2003) ISBN 0099433559. E.g. Chapters 2, 13 and 16.
Any of the novels are worth reading as we shall draw on all of them. For instance: Under the Net; The Bell; An Unofficial Rose; The Unicorn; The Nice and The Good; A Fairly Honourable Defeat; The Black Prince; The Sacred and Profane Love Machine; A Word Child; The Sea The Sea; The Philosopher’s Pupil; The Good Apprentice; The Book and the Brotherhood; The Green Knight.
