There's a band of moral philosophers in the novels amany of the the moral philosophers who appear there have works entitled exactly or very close to the same as iris murdock's novels. Their moral philosophy is either ineffectual, it can actually damage or it can be dangerous. And by the time you get to the 19 eighties and you have john robert rodano appearing in the novels, he cann reconcile the fact that he feels a sexual attraction for his granddaughter with his role as a moral philosopher. You know, she's very, very critical, in a way, or inviting her readers to be very cautious about the way that the moral philosophers in her novels are delivering their message
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second World War, she argued that morality was not subjective or a matter of taste, as many of her contemporaries held, but was objective, and good was a fact we could recognize. To tell good from bad, though, we would need to see the world as it really is, not as we want to see it, and her novels are full of characters who are not yet enlightened enough to do that.
With
Anil Gomes
Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, University of Oxford
Anne Rowe
Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester and Emeritus Research Fellow with the Iris Murdoch Archive Project at Kingston University
And
Miles Leeson
Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre and Reader in English Literature at the University of Chichester
Producer: Simon Tillotson