The Murdochian Mind by Caprioglio Panizza, Silvia; Hopwood, Mark;

Short description:

An outstanding reference source to the full span of Murdoch's work, comprising 37 specially commissioned chapters written by an international team of leading scholars. This is the first volume to do justice to the incredibly rich and wide-ranging nature of her work.

Long description:

Iris Murdoch was a philosopher and novelist of extraordinary breadth and originality whose work defies simple categorisation. Her philosophical writing engages with an astonishingly wide range of figures, from Plato and Kant to Sartre and Heidegger, and her work increasingly inspires debate in ethics, aesthetics, religion, and literature.

The Murdochian Mind is an outstanding reference source to the full span of Murdoch's philosophical work, comprising 37 specially commissioned chapters written by an international team of leading scholars. Divided into five clear parts, the volume covers the following areas:

• A guide to Murdoch's key philosophical texts, including The Sovereignty of Good and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals.


• Core themes and concepts in Murdoch's philosophy, such as love, moral vision, and attention.


• Murdoch's engagement with the history of philosophy, including Plato, Kant, Hegel, Simone Weil, and Wittgenstein.


• Interdisciplinary connections with art, literature, and religion, including Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity.


• Murdoch and contemporary philosophical debates, including feminism, virtue ethics, and metaethics.


• The application of Murdoch’s thought to applied ethics, including animal ethics, psychiatric ethics, and the environment.

Although recent years have seen a blossoming of interest in Murdoch’s philosophy, The Murdochian Mind is the first volume to do justice to the incredibly rich and wide-ranging nature of her work. As such it will be of great interest to students of philosophy, especially ethics and aesthetics, as well as those in related disciplines such as literature, religion, and gender studies.

'The Murdochian Mind is a whole three-day conference between covers. … The 2022 Iris Murdoch Conference took place while I was working on this review. Interleaved with my reading were emails and social media posts making me feel that, while I am on the other side of the world, the conversations are continuing wherever Murdochians meet, in person, on paper, or online. Books like this one enrich these conversations, and I congratulate Caprioglio Panizza and Hopwood – Silvia and Mark – on the enormous intellectual and organisational feat they have accomplished in bringing this book together.' - Gillian Dooley, Iris Murdoch Review

Table of Contents:

Introduction  Silvia Caprioglio Panizza and Mark Hopwood  Part 1: Reading Murdoch  1. The Importance of Murdoch`s early encounters with Marcel and Anscombe Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman  2. How to read The Sovereignty of Good Justin Broackes  3. How to read The Fire and the Sun David Robjant  4. How to read Acastos: Murdoch’s Platonic dialogues Hannah Marije Altorf  5. How to read Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals Mark Hopwood  6. How Iris Murdoch can change your life Frances White  7. Murdoch and me: A personal reflection Stanley Hauerwas  Part 2: Core themes and concepts  8. Thinking, language, and concepts Niklas Forsberg  9. Inwardness in ethics Sophie Grace Chappell  10. Moral vision Anil Gomes  11. Attention Silvia Caprioglio Panizza  12. Love Christopher Cordner  13. Virtue Maria Silvia Vaccarezza  14. The Good Craig Taylor  15. The ontological argument Nora Hämäläinen  16. Care for the ordinary Sandra Laugier  Part 3: Critical encounters  17. Murdoch and Plato Catherine Rowett  18. Murdoch and Kant Melissa Merritt  19. Murdoch and Hegel Gary Browning  20. Murdoch and Heidegger Michelle Mahoney  21. Murdoch and Sartre Alison Scott-Baumann  22. Murdoch and Weil Eva-Maria Düringer  23. Murdoch and Wittgenstein Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen  24. Murdoch and K.E. Løgstrup Robert Stern  Part 4: Art, religion, and politics  25. Art, beauty, and morality Chiara Brozzo and Andy Hamilton  26. Is Murdoch a philosophical novelist? Miles Leeson  27. Writing morally Rowan Williams  28. Murdoch and Christianity Elizabeth Burns  29. Murdoch and Buddhism Christopher W. Gowans  30. Murdoch and Jewish thought Victor Jeleniewski Seidler  31. Murdoch and politics Lawrence Blum  32. Murdoch and feminism Lucy Bolton  Part 5: Contemporary moral issues  33. Nature and the environment Lucy Oulton  34. Loving attention to animals Tony Milligan  35. Psychiatric ethics Anna Bergqvist  36. Moral injury Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon  37. Civility Megan Jane Laverty.  Index