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Iris Murdoch and the Political

Online ISBN:
9780191937347
Print ISBN:
9780192844989
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Iris Murdoch and the Political

Published online:
24 June 2024
Published in print:
25 July 2024
Online ISBN:
9780191937347
Print ISBN:
9780192844989
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Iris Murdoch is a celebrated philosopher and novelist. Was she a political theorist? It has been argued that she concentrated upon the personal and the moral at the expense of the social and the political. However, this book urges the contrary. Murdoch had lifelong interests in politics, literature, and philosophy. More than that, Murdoch sees experience, historical experience, as the foundation upon which literature, philosophy, and political theory are based. Hence, in reading Murdoch we get a clear insight into the nature of the political world in the twentieth century. From an early political radicalism to a later scepticism over political possibilities, Murdoch reacted to and thought about the great political events of the twentieth century, notably the Holocaust, the rise and fall of ideologies, the possibilities of utopianism, and the realities of political tyranny and totalitarianism. Her political philosophy conceptualized relations between moral and political spheres. Her novels deal imaginatively with questions of migration, refugees, sexuality, and freedom. Her letters and journals provide moment to moment reactions to political events.

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