The Iris Murdoch Society podcast

In this, her first public lecture, Dr Maria Peacock discusses Iris Murdoch's search for home using examples from her novels and biography. This lecture was given at the University of Chichester on Saturday 29th March, 2025.

In this episode Miles is joined by Prof. Bridget Clarke (University of Montana) to discuss her new book, entitled ‘Iris Murdoch’ in the Cambridge Elements, Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy series from Cambridge University Press. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Iris-Murdoch-by-Bridget-Clarke/9781009358149 Bridget is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana and her research interests include the History of Ethics, Moral Psychology and, of course, Iris Murdoch, who she has been working on for the past twenty years or more. This new book, however, is her first monograph dedicated solely to Murdoch work. To access Iris Murdoch's Review of Dr Zhivago - mentioned at the end of the podcast - use this link: https://mailadminchiac-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/m_leeson_chi_ac_uk/ESChvUwQ5xpIiacFzothi7QB8eT3VRQavDZRT83RCUuvVg?e=FEEhQe

In this podcast Miles is joined by Michela Dianetti and Lucy Elvis (both from Galway University, Ireland) discusses the role Murdoch's work can play in public philosophy. They discuss working with her philosophy, her radio play 'The One Alone', her novel 'The Unicorn', the Quartet biography 'Metaphysical Animals' and much more. Dr Michela Dianetti is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Galway and a CPI (Community of philosophical inquiry) facilitator. Her PhD research developed a literary ethics of attention grounded in the philosophies of Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch, applying them to the literary work of Elsa Morante. She is currently researching the influence of Weil’s and Murdoch’s philosophies on Ann Margaret Sharp’s theorization of P4C and the role of attention in CPI. mdianetti@universityofgalway.ie Dr. Lucy Elvis teaches and researches on issues in the Philosophy of Art and Culture and the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CPI) as a faculty member at the University of Galway. She is a founding director of Curo Thinking for Communities and has practised philosophical thinking with communities in schools, libraries, galleries, and music festivals. Currently, she is researching the CPI as a forum for practising and developing attention as described by Iris Murdoch, Simone Weil and Hans-Georg Gadamer. lucy.elvis@universityofgalway.ie Some of the texts mentioned: Sharp, Ann Margaret, “Self-transformation in the community of inquiry” in Gregory, Maughn, and Megan Laverty, eds. 2019. In Community of Inquiry with Ann Margaret Sharp: Childhood, Philosophy and Education. 1st edition. London New York (N.Y.): Routledge. Mac Cumhaill, Clare, and Rachael Wiseman. 2022. Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life. London: Chatto & Windus. White, Frances. 2012. “A Post-Christian Concept of Martyrdom and the Murdochian Chorus: The One Alone and T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral.” In Iris Murdoch: Texts and Contexts, edited by Anne Rowe and Avril Horner, 177–91. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. And some websites to check out: https://aireinquiryandenvironment.wordpress.com/ https://www.universityofgalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/history-philosophy/disciplines-centres/philosophy/

In this episode Miles is joined by Ian D'alton (Trinity College, Dublin) and Frances White (University of Chichester) to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Murdoch's ninth novel, The Red and The Green. Ian is a visiting research fellow in the Centre for Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College, Dublin, and his most recent work is Southern Irish Protestants: Histories, Lives and Literatures was published just a few months ago. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Southern-Irish-Protestants-Histories-Literature/dp/1916742505 Frances is a Visiting Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester, editor of the Iris Murdoch Review, and Writer in Residence at Kingston University Writing School. Her prize-winning biography Becoming Iris Murdoch was published in 2014 (Kingston University Press) and her monograph, Iris Murdoch and Remorse: Beyond Forgiving? was published in 2024 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-43013-8 You can find an excellent article on Murdoch and Ireland by Frances White and Gillian Dooley here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0013838X.2019.1672449

In this episode Miles is joined by Daniel Read (University of Kingston) to discuss his new book, 'Degrees of Evil in Iris Murdoch's Fiction and Philosophy'. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-75841-6 We range across all of her published work - in literature, fiction and theology - and ask why the nature of evil obsessed her throughout her career.

This Keynote Lecture was given at the Eleventh International Iris Murdoch Conference at Chichester on the 31st August, 2024. Justin is Professor of Philosophy at Brown, USA. There are philosophers who have said that late 20th century philosophical works do not need commentaries in the way that the writings of Plato and Aristotle, or Kant and Hegel do. Russell and Strawson, or Kripke and Lewis — and others at least in the English-speaking academic world — have committed themselves so much to clarity and a kind of professional *limitation* that they will have followers and opponents, but won’t need expository or explanatory commentary. But Wittgenstein is evidently an exception and so, I think, is Murdoch. What makes philosophical commentary valuable when it is? What kinds of work does it, or should it, do? Which kind of institutional structures promote one kind of writing and which another? And what kind of exception is Murdoch? These are questions, I think, worth exploring.

In this episode Miles is joined by Robert Cremins (University of Houston, Texas) and Daniel Read (Kingston University) to celebrate the anniversary of Murdoch's Whitbread Award-winning novel from 1974. They cover the culture of the 1970s, trauma, childhood, cruelty, black humour, love triangles, links to other writers, links to other novels by Murdoch and much more. Robert is a writer and Senior Lecturer in the Honours College at the University of Houston, and the Faculty Director of Creative Works. A novelist, short story writer and literary critic, Robert has got a lifelong love of Murdoch’s fiction. He is currently working on next year’s North American special edition of the Iris Murdoch Review which will be published in the Autumn of 2025. Daniel Read lectures at the University of Kingston and his monograph, Degrees of Evil in Iris Murdoch's Fiction and Philosophy, is due from Palgrave MacMillan in early 2025.

In this episode Miles is joined by Dr Frances White (University of Chichester) and Liz Whittome (Former Chief and Principal Examiner of English for Cambridge Examinations) to discuss dogs in Murdoch's Fiction. The episode covers Under the Net, The Sandcastle, The Nice and the Good, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, The Green Knight and The Philosopher's Pupil in some depth as well as discussing other Murdoch novels. You can buy Chris Boddington's 'Iris Murdoch's People A-Z' via the society website, here: https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/product/iris-murdoch-people-a-to-z/

In this episode Miles is joined by Prof. Larry Blum (U-Mass, USA) to discuss the intellectual and personal connections between Iris and Dorothy Emmet. This follows on from a previous episode on Emmet, which you can find in the Podcast archive. Professor Lawrence Blum is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education and Professor of Philosophy. His scholarly interests are in race theory, moral philosophy, moral psychology, moral education, multiculturalism, social and political philosophy, philosophy of education, the philosophy of Simone Weil, philosophy and the Holocaust, and ethics and race in film. You can find his Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy Entry on Murdoch here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/murdoch/ You can find materials on the Oxford Quartet, as well as Dorothy Emmet, here: https://www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk/

In this episode Miles is joined by Matt Congdon (Vanderbilt, USA), Sam Filby, (Northwestern, USA) and Francey Russell (Columbia, USA) to consider Murdoch's moral psychology. They discuss Murdoch's essay 'Vision and Choice in Morality' and 'On 'God' and 'Good''- you can find both in 'Existentialists and Mystics'. Also recommended is this article by Cora Diamond: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/cora-diamond-picture-of-the-soul-the-moral-psychology-of-iris-m/11316086 Matt Congdon is a philosopher at the University of Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee specializing in ethics, social philosophy, and aesthetics. He writes about emotions, interpersonal recognition, moral change, the aesthetics of interpersonal ethical life, and the intersections of ethics and epistemology. His work on these topics has appeared in The Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, Philosophy, The European Journal of Philosophy, Episteme, and Philosophical Topics, amongst others. His book, Moral Articulation: On the Development of New Moral Concepts appeared in November 2023 with Oxford University Press and you can hear him discussing it on a previous podcast so check that out if you’ve not already listened in. He is currently working on two new book projects: one on the aesthetic dimensions of interpersonal ethical life and one on the philosophy of Iris Murdoch. He is also working on essays on the non-propositional rationality of emotions, Iris Murdoch, and struggles for recognition. Francey Russell is Assistant Professor of philosophy at the University of Columbia, New York and works on issues in moral psychology and ethics broadly construed, often overlapping with topics in social philosophy and aesthetics, and drawing from contemporary and historical sources. She works mostly on Kant and Freud, but also Nietzsche and Cavell. She is writing a book on the concept of self-opacity and its significance for philosophical accounts of agency and moral psychology. She also writes film criticism, and is working on a project on cinematic aesthetics in genre films as well as the recent article in The Philosophical Quarterly ‘Moral Psychology as a Soul Picture’, which illuminates Murdoch thinking in this very area. Sam Filby is currently working on his PhD thesis on Murdoch at Northwestern University, Chicago. His work focuses on Murdoch’s aesthetics and – handily for this podcast – moral psychology and he’s recently presented his work at the Sorbonne in Paris and, a few weeks ago, here at the University of Chichester.