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Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals

Author Iris Murdoch
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Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Mar 01, 1994 | 528 Pages | 9781101495797
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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.
"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 
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. View titles by Iris Murdoch
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals1. Conceptions of Unity. Art
2. Fact and Value
3. Schopenhauer
4. Art and Religion
5. Comic and Tragic
6. Consciousness and Thought - I
7. Derrida and Structuralism
8. Consciousness and Thought - II
9. Wittgenstein and the Inner Life
10. Notes on Will and Duty
11. Imagination
12. Morals and Politics
13. The Ontological Proof
14. Descartes and Kant
15. Martin Buber and God
16. Morality and Religion
17. Axioms, Duties, Eros
18. Void
19. Metaphysics: A Summary
Acknowledgments
Index

About

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.

Reviews

"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 

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. View titles by Iris Murdoch

Table of Contents

Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals1. Conceptions of Unity. Art
2. Fact and Value
3. Schopenhauer
4. Art and Religion
5. Comic and Tragic
6. Consciousness and Thought - I
7. Derrida and Structuralism
8. Consciousness and Thought - II
9. Wittgenstein and the Inner Life
10. Notes on Will and Duty
11. Imagination
12. Morals and Politics
13. The Ontological Proof
14. Descartes and Kant
15. Martin Buber and God
16. Morality and Religion
17. Axioms, Duties, Eros
18. Void
19. Metaphysics: A Summary
Acknowledgments
Index

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