21/03/2025
Next up in our Women’s History Month round off is philosopher and author, Iris Murdoch. “Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was best known during her lifetime as a bestselling novelist, as well as a playwright and poet. Her 26 books were widely enjoyed and acclaimed, and The Sea, the Sea won the Booker prize in 1978. At the same time, she was also a highly successful academic philosopher whose work deeply shaped many prominent twentieth century philosophers (such as John McDowell, Cora Diamond and Charles Taylor).
Her highly original work, inspired by Plato, offers a novel take on moral realism where the moral life is ultimately focused on love. According to her, the core more task is to overcome our ordinary temptation to ‘fantasise’, which prevents us from truly seeing others, and to instead come to discern moral reality through the exercise of ‘just and loving attention’ directed at the individual.” - Cathy Mason, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the Central European University
