Iris Murdoch (1919-present)

Thoughts on Love, Self and Soul

Short Biography Timeline

LOVE

Instances of the facts, as I shall boldly call them, which interests me and which seem to have been forgotten or 'theorized away' are the fact that an unexamined life can be virtuous and the fact that love is a central concept in morals.(*1)

Contemporary philosophers frequently connect consciousness with virtue, and although they constantly talk of freedom they rarely talk of love.(*2)

As kant said what we are commended to do is to love our neighbour in a practical and not a pathological sense.(*3)

Is 'love' a mental concept, and if so can it be analysed genetically? No doubt Mary's little lamb loved Mary, that is it followed her to school; and in some sense of 'learn' we might well learn the concept, the word, in that context.(*4)

We can only learn to love by loving.(*5)

Love is the knowledge of the individual.(*6)

Is 'love' a mental concept, and if so can it be analysed genetically? No doubt Mary's little lamb loved Mary, that is it followed her to school; and in some sense of 'learn' we might well learn the concept, the word, in that context.(*7)

Contemporary philosophers frequently connect consciousness with virtue, and although they constantly talk of freedom they rarely talk of love.(*8)

SELF

That which I do is that for which I am responsible and which is peculiarly an expression of myself. It is essential to thought that it takes its own forms and follows its own paths without the intervention of my will. 'I identify myself with my will.'(*9)

(The will) is isolated from belief, from reason, from feeling, and is yet the essential centre of self. 'I identify myself with my will.'(*10)

The argument for looking outward at Christ and not inward at Reason is that self is such a dazzling object that if one looks there one may see nothing else.(*11)

In order to talk about consciousness or self-being, the 'medium' in which all these amazing things are taking place, it is necessary first to consider the philosophical concept, or concepts, of the self. 'Self' can impede a consideration of 'consciousness' by which it ought to be enriched. How do the concepts 'self', 'experience', 'consciousness' relate? Should philosophy recognise these concepts at all? 'The self' sounds like the name of something, soul, ego, psyche, essential person. Self, thing, person, story and work of art are wholes which does not trouble us as ordinary people. We get along with being a self, without much difficulty, though if we reflect it may seem a remarkable achievement. Ordinary usage recognises a (morally) higher and lower self evidenced by higher and lower thoughts and actions.(*12)

The argument for looking outward at Christ and not inward at Reason is that self is such a dazzling object that if one looks these one may see nothing else.(*13)

The self or soul . . . is seen to live and travel between truth and falsehood, good and evil, appearance and reality.(*14)

SOUL

[O]ur dense familiar inner stuff, private and personal, with a quality and a value of its own, something which we can scrutinise and control. Moral reflections especially may move us in this direction.(*15)

The theological idea of the soul has been a support to the concept of self in philosophy. Now as theology and religion lose their authority the picture of the soul fades and the idea of the soul loses its power.(*16)

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