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In chapter one, I describe the different conceptions of self that Murdoch and Nussbaum have, and I show how these affect their depictions of human good. And I relate how each one defends the internal logic of her claims against the critique of moral relativism. I examine Iris Murdoch's conception of reality and consciousness in the distinctive way that she fuses them to a transcendent morality. / In chapter two, I turn to Murdoch's description of the journey from illusion to reality and the role of love or eros in this journey. I examine the many points of intersection between her description of the escape from selfishness and Wendy Farley's (1996) theory of how we acknowledge the other through a type of attention that she calls eros for the other . / In Chapter three, I discuss the problem that evil poses for Murdoch's moral philosophy, and how Murdoch and Farley interpret the experience of the void as yearning for relation. In the conclusion of this thesis, I present Murdoch's views on form as the consolation of human yearning. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis develops a complex theoretical model for conceptualizing the relationships among philosophy, religion, and art and, then, examines the philosophical writings and the novels of Iris Murdoch from this perspective. The theoretical model in its most general form is based on the premiss that philosophy, religion, and art can be thought of as conventionally defined linguistic fields analogous to Wittgensteinian language-games. Relations among the linguistic fields are, in turn, analysed as exclusive ("Disparate" Model), inclusive ("Reductionist" Model), or interactional ("Dialectical" and "Tensional" Models), the latter pair being most appropriate for figurative language, the former pair for non-figurative language. The Dialectical and Tensional Models are assimilated, respectively, to Roman Jakobson's theory of metaphor and metonymy as the fundamental poles of language. Emphasis falls upon the continuum between the dialectical-metaphoric and the tensional-metonymic poles as the area in which creative, imaginative activities, such as the writing of novels or deliberation upon ethical problems, takes place. Iris Murdoch's theories of "crystalline" and "journalistic," "open" and "closed" novels and the related ways of thinking are coordinated with this continuum as a paradigm. Moreover, a creative tension is revealed in her philosophical writings between a resisted impetus towards totalizing explanations and the experience of the inherent contingency of philosophical thought. Thus, there is in Murdoch's philosophy, as in her creative prose, an exploration of the dynamics between the dialectical-metaphoric pole of thought and language and the tensional-metonymic pole, with an increasing, though never finally realized tendency towards the tensional-metonymic pole. Detailed analyses of Murdoch's aesthetic and ethical thought and of a wide selection of her novels illustrate this thesis.

Dissertção (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasilia, Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Filosofia, 2010. / Submitted by Raquel Viana (tempestade_b@hotmail.com) on 2011-06-16T19:41:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_RafaelSilvaPinto.pdf: 355277 bytes, checksum: c2600acaea6a4ecaf101f2422c62a9ad (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Guilherme Lourenço Machado(gui.admin@gmail.com) on 2011-06-17T13:07:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_RafaelSilvaPinto.pdf: 355277 bytes, checksum: c2600acaea6a4ecaf101f2422c62a9ad (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-17T13:07:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_RafaelSilvaPinto.pdf: 355277 bytes, checksum: c2600acaea6a4ecaf101f2422c62a9ad (MD5) / Interpretação da filosofia moral de Iris Murdoch. A presente dissertação é estruturada em torno de três temáticas correlatas a fim de buscar uma compreensão abrangente da ética e da metafísica da filósofa. São elas: o pluralismo das visões morais, o bem e o vazio. A pergunta fundamental que orienta a investigação é sobre a possibilidade ou não de compatibilizar o pluralismo das visões morais e a soberania do Bem. Esta relação ocorre por meio de uma filosofia moral concebida como iconoclasmo criativo, que se nutre da tensão entre forma e contingência, explorando as fissuras e as ambigüidades de vários cenários e conceitos morais tais como retratados por sistemas filosóficos, pelas obras de arte, pela religião e tantas outras atividades humanas investigadas. Por meio da crítica de correntes filosóficas preponderantes, a filósofa delineia o seu programa de recuperação de conceitos e imagens metafísicos, esclarecendo a sua centralidade para o pluralismo moral, concebido como a exploração imaginativa do mistério vinculado às visões morais dos indivíduos. O caráter assistemático de sua filosofia bem como a pluralidade de formas adotadas para investigar cenários morais diversos integram a sua concepção de moralidade como uma peregrinação individual em busca do Bem, que envolve a purificação do Eros e o aperfeiçoamento dos estados de consciência. O Bem é a melhor metáfora encontrada para exprimir que a moralidade não pode ser descartada da vida humana. O seu caráter transcendente visa à preservação da consciência moral e do julgamento ético individual como ferramentas críticas para apontar os limites e as falibilidades de toda e qualquer teoria. A sua filosofia é um convite ao leitor para empreender sua própria jornada espiritual, é uma provocação para que os indivíduos não considerem o discernimento entre o bem e o mal uma mera questão de escolha ou de vontade arbitrária, mas um engajamento existencial na tarefa inesgotável de atenção, purificação da energia espiritual, aprimoramento da visão moral, que envolve tanto um aprofundamento íntimo da compreensão do vocabulário moral como uma transformação moral interior. A discussão do problema do mal face ao realismo moral abre caminho para uma análise mais acurada do conceito de vazio, que se revela como idéia-chave para a compreensão do Bem e da própria atividade filosófica. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / Interpretation of Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy. The present dissertation is structured upon three issues correlated in order to propose a general grasp of ethics and metaphysics in Iris Murdoch’s thought. The issues are: the pluralism of moral visions, the good and the void. The fundamental question, which guides the investigation, is about the possibility of harmonizing her pluralism of moral visions and the sovereignty of the Good. This relation comes about by means of a moral philosophy conceived as creative iconoclasm, which is fostered by the tension between form and contingency, exploring fissures and ambiguities of several moral pictures and concepts as portrayed by philosophical systems, by works of art, by religion and so many others human activities investigated. By means of the criticism of predominating philosophical currents, the philosopher draws her recuperation program for metaphysics’ concepts and pictures, showing its centrality for moral pluralism, thought as an imaginative exploration of the mystery attached to individuals’ moral visions. The unsystematic feature of her philosophy, as well as the plurality of adopted forms in order to investigate different moral scenarios, integrates her conception of morality as an individual peregrination in search of the Good, which involves the purification of Eros and the improvement of states of consciousness. The Good is the best metaphor found to express that morality cannot be eliminated from human life. Its transcendent feature intends to preserve moral consciousness and individual ethical judgment as critical tools to point limits and failures of every theory. Her philosophy is an invitation to the reader to undertake his own spiritual journey. It’s a challenge to individuals not to regard the discernment between good and evil as a matter of choice or arbitrary will, but as an existential commitment to the ceaseless task of attention, to the purification of spiritual energy, to the improvement of moral vision, which involves an intimate deepening of the comprehension of moral vocabulary as well as an interior moral transformation. The discussion of the problem of evil faced with the Good as a reality principle enables a more accurate analysis of the concept of the void, that reveals itself as a key idea for the comprehension of the Good and of the philosophical activity itself.

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Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--University of Leeds. / Bibliogr. p. 249-257.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Flinders University of South Australia, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-379). Also available online.