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Iris Murdoch on moral perception
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Cooper, Andrew J. (2021) Iris Murdoch on moral perception. Heythrop Journal, 62 (3). pp. 454-466. doi:10.1111/heyj.13274 ISSN 0018-1196.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/heyj.13274
Abstract
Many students who sign up for undergraduate‐level philosophy arrive with the expectation that moral philosophy is concerned with how one should act in the concrete and familiar situations of everyday life. Yet moral philosophers are often motivated by an ideal of neutrality, and adopt a detached perspective to achieve a scientific view of the competing moral theories. To concretise the points of disagreement they present highly specific examples that are abstracted from daily reality. There is something odd about the image of morality that comes into view. What kind of guidance about how to act in concrete and familiar situations can this form of theorising bring about? This paper examines Iris Murdoch’s account of moral perception as an alternative starting point. Murdoch offers a perspective that is conceptually prior to the separation of thought from action, one that addresses the agent on the level of perception. While accounts of moral perception are often criticized for proposing a complacent moral theory that is inherently conservative, I argue that Murdoch’s account offers a radical – or tragic – form of perfectionism. While moral philosophy cannot provide sufficient reasons to act, Murdoch shows that it can, like art, make us practical, capable of acting.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Ethics, Murdoch, Iris -- Criticism and interpretation | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Heythrop Journal | ||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0018-1196 | ||||||||
Official Date: | May 2021 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 62 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 454-466 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/heyj.13274 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | "This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Cooper, A. (2019), Iris Murdoch on Moral Perception. Hey J. which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/heyj.13274. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions." | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 2 April 2019 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 28 March 2021 | ||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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