Iris Murdoch’s Philosophy of Love

Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.  – Iris Murdoch

         In her novel The Bell, Iris Murdoch explores the moral lives of different members of a religious community. The novel opens with the perspective of Dora Greenfield, an unhappy wife returning to her husband, Paul, in London.  When she gets to London, she realizes he Paul isn’t there and meets him where he is working, a small religious community called Imber Court. At this point, Murdoch introduces the perspectives of a young boy, Toby, also a visitor to Imber Court, and to the community’s leader, Michael. As the story of the bell progresses, Murdoch introduces her moral philosophy through the journey of her characters: each of them ultimately seeking the concept of good and accept a moral change. The transformation of these characters represents an exercise of Murdoch’s philosophy. Ultimately, the novel as a whole represents an extension of her moral outlook.

            In addition to The Bell, Murdoch wrote many philosophical works and articles about philosophers. Murdoch’s research and knowledge of philosophy leads to a cultivated moral standard.

In her article, “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good,” Elizabeth Burns writes;

The prevalent model of the moral life has tended to support the assumption that there is only one way to be moral. Iris Murdoch’s concept of Good is a central feature of her moral theory; in Murdoch’s thought, attention to the Good is the primary means of improving our moral conduct. (Burns, 303)

The author expresses that Murdoch replaces God with good and makes the search for “good” central to moral truth. Burns further explains that, “According to Murdoch, our moral task is to defeat our ‘natural’ egoism. She suggests that the techniques of Plato can help us to achieve this” (Burns, 303). The author explains that according to Murdoch’s philosophy in order to love we have to overcome our innate Freudian ego and see through the eyes of another. As readers, we see examples of this in The Bell, specifically through the relationships of the characters.

            Furthermore, the theme of love as the key to moral happiness is explored in The Bell. There are many instances of spiritual and physical love in the novel, culminating in the symbol of the bell itself.Again according to Burns;

The force which, in Miss Murdoch’s opinion, most powerfully combats convention by provoking a sympathetic understanding of another individual is love; for, as she defines it, love is ‘the imaginative recognition of, that is respect for,’ the otherness of another person. (556)

The author explains that Murdoch bases most of her moral philosophy on love and the exploration of the world through the desire to do good things. We also see this aspect of Murdoch’s philosophy in the relationships in The Bell, as we see different manifestations of love that are equally fulfilling; we simultaneously see the consequences of denying love.

            Overall, Murdoch was in her own sense a philosopher; she wrote extensively about philosophy and incorporated many aspects of this into her other works. In The Bell, Murdoch illustrates her philosophy through her characters. Dora, Toby, and Michael all go through a spiritual change or awakening, their changes affect each other and the world around them. Ultimately, Murdoch seeks to merge love and morality into one attainable object, her work represents the search for fulfillment through love.

Works Cited

Burns, Elizabeth. “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good.” Religious Studies 3rd ser. 33 (1997): 303-13. Print.

Hauerwas, Stanley. “The Self as Story: Religion and Morality from the Agent’s Perspective.”JSTOR. The Journal of Religious Ethics, Fall 1973. Web. 4 Aug. 2013.

Kaehele, Sharon, and Howard German. “The Discovery of Reality in Iris Murdoch’s The Bell.”Modern Language Association 7th ser. 82 (1967): 554-63. The Discovery of Reality in Iris Murdoch’s The Bell. Web. 4 Aug. 2013.