Why Iris Murdoch Matters

by Gary Browning, Constantine Sandis (Editor)

Overview

In Why Iris Murdoch Matters Gary Browning draws on as yet unpublished archival material to present an unrivalled overview of Murdoch's work and thought. Browning argues for Murdoch's position amongst the key theorists of modern life, and discusses in detail her engagement with the notion of late modernity. Her multiple perspectives on art, philosophy, religion, politics and the self all relate to how she understands the nature of late modernity.

Browning lucidly illustrates that through both her thought and fiction we can grasp the significance of issues that remain of paramount importance today: the possibilities of a moral life without foundations, the meaning of philosophy in a post-metaphysical age, the prospects of politics without ideological certainties and the significance of art after realism.

A totally original work arguing persuasively that Iris Murdoch not only matters but is absolutely central to how we think through the contemporary age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472574473
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/23/2018
Series:	Why Philosophy Matters
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Gary Browning is Professor of Politics at Oxford Brookes University, UK where he is also Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Murdoch and Modernity
2. Philosophy: Plato and the Good
3. The Modern Self in Search of Itself
4. The Good
5. The Time of the Angels: Religion After the Death of God
6. Politics in a Post-ideological World
7. Art After Realism
8. The Life and Times of Murdoch
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

A stunning account of the philosophical and, to a lesser degree, political, underpinning of Murdoch's novel writing ... written in precise, rich prose, this is an important contribution to the growing sphere of Iris Murdoch studies but should also prove to be of immense interest to the general reader alike.
Irish Times

She had a significant impact on some brilliant philosophers: Cora Diamond, John McDowell, Martha Nussbaum, and Charles Taylor. But she is not widely read ... Her work may be more visible now, but progress is slow. Browning's accessible, wide-ranging book will help accelerate it.
Los Angeles Review of Books

The complex relationships Murdoch so carefully lays bare in her novels show the misery that people inflict on themselves and others by failing to attend properly to the reality at hand. Her philosophical works on metaphysics and ethics display her unique reaction to the dryness and radical individualism of the overly abstract philosophies of existentialist and analytic philosophers, who depict moral agents as freely choosing wills unencumbered, and undefined by, personal relations, detached from the communities in which they live. Murdoch attempts to recover traditional values lost in these philosophies by intimations in experience of the unifying presence of goodness that transcends subjective satisfaction. Good art and literature enable people to see and become more sensitive to the experience of others. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
CHOICE

From the Publisher