Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals - by Iris Murdoch (Paperback)

About the Book

The acclaimed author of The Good Apprentice draws on the entire history of philosophy--and particularly on Plato and Kant--to formulate her own model of morality and demonstrate how thoroughly it is bound up with our daily lives. "An utterly absorbing book".--The Wall Street Journal.

Book Synopsis

The decline of religion and ever increasing influence of science pose acute ethical issues for us all. Can we reject the literal truth of the Gospels yet still retain a Christian morality? Can we defend any 'moral values' against the constant encroachments of technology? Indeed, are we in danger of losing most of the qualities which make us truly human? Here, drawing on a novelist's insight into art, literature and abnormal psychology, Iris Murdoch conducts an ongoing debate with major writers, thinkers and theologians--from Augustine to Wittgenstein, Shakespeare to Sartre, Plato to Derrida--to provide fresh and compelling answers to these crucial questions.

Review Quotes

"Remarkable--Iris Murdoch has once again put us all in her debt." --The New York Times Book Review

"Anyone who has even the slightest interest in philosophical matters will find Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals an utterly absorbing book." --The Wall Street Journal

"Lively, witty, and spellbinding, written by a sleuth on the trail of the meaning of Life." --Peter Mullen, The Daily Mail

"Sets you daydreaming, captivates with a stream of thought, empowers with reminiscences." --London Review of Books

"Gripping . . . Iris Murdoch has written a book which concerns all of us as human beings . . . There are pages here that one wants to embrace her for, pages that say things of fundamental human importance in a way that they have never quite been said before." --Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph

"Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals is a prodigious roller coaster of a book, a journey through philosophy, religion, literature, art--less a guide than a gigantic survey, a mapping, providing readers with the means to find their own ways . . . I know of no other writer who could have covered such large areas with such authority, nor had the courage to treat fashion with such disdain." --Nicholas Mosley, The Daily Telegraph

"A large, elaborate and visionary philosophical essay . . . richly stimulating . . . this is a significant book, lambent with insights, intelligence, and profound concern." --A. C. Grayling, The Financial Times

"Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals is really a much needed Guide to Life. 'Good is the reality of which God is the dream' is a line of simple beauty, distilling philosophical insight into purest poetry." --Josephine Hart, The Sunday Express

"It is a great congested work, a foaming sourcebook, about life, imagination, tragedy, philosophy, morality, religion, and art." --Galen Strawson, The Independent on Sunday

About the Author

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was born in Dublin and brought up in London. She studied philosophy at Cambridge and was a philosophy fellow at St. Anne's College for 20 years. She published her first novel in 1954 and was instantly recognized as a major talent. She went on to publish more than 26 novels, as well as works of philosophy, plays, and poetry.