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Plato and the Poets
Iris Murdoch (1919 -- 1999) was educated as a philosopher and taught philosophy at Oxford from 1948 -- 1963. In her high regard for Plato, and in her struggles with him, Murdoch was somewhat out of step with the leading trends in philosophy of her day in Britain and the United States and on the Continent as well. Murdoch's difficult relation to Plato may be seen in this short, dense book "The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists".Published in 1977, the book is out of print but available in a compilation of Murdoch's philosophical writings. I have the original book, not the compilation, and there is much in it to discuss.The book is based on the Romanes Lecture Murdock gave at Oxford in 1976.Founded in 1892, the Romanes Lectures are a series of free public lectures on a variety of subjects in science, art, or literature which aim to appeal to lay people as well as to scholars. In her lecture, Murdoch tried to explain Plato's views of art and artists, to understand the reasons Plato gave for his views, and to try to respond to them.

The theme of the book derives from the title "The Fire and the Sun", a figure which in turn derives from Plato's allegory of the cave in Book VII of the Republic.In his allegory, Plato, pictures a group of people chained deep inside a dark cave facing a wall. With their chains, they can barely turn their heads. There are images on the wall of the cave that can be seen because they are illuminated by a fire in the back.The people looking at the passing images think they are real -- and that they exhaust reality -- because they don't see or know anything else. Outside the cave and barely visible from inside is the sun. With their chains and perspective of shadows, those in the cave have little conception of the sun and of reality outside the cave. It is the task of wisdom, for Plato, to free people from their attachment to the images on the wall, from their own partial and misshapen perceptions, to work their way from the cave and its fire, and to understand the sun and reality rather than their own images.

Plato remains a complex, elusive thinker and his philosophy may not be of a single piece. In much of his work, Plato evidences skepticism if not outright hostility towards much poetry and art which, in Plato's Greece, remains some of the greatest that has been produced. Murdoch tries to explain why. Broadly speaking, Plato criticizes artists for taking the easy, unenlighted, egotistical way out. Artists produce images and imitations, for Plato.These images derive from the shadows on the cave illuminated by the fire. Their products are even more removed from reality that the illuminations seen by the people chained to look at the wall. Artists mislead and seduce by portraying images of images without the requisite enlightenment and training to see things as they are.

Much of Murdoch's study elaborates this criticism as she moves through Plato's changing views of the nature of reality, his theory of Forms, as it develops and is qualified in his later works such as the "Philebus" "Parmenides", "Sophist", "Timaeus", and "Laws". It is always rewarding for me to be reminded of these writings. As Plato's thought deepened, it move somewhat away from a sharp divide between the abstract world of the form and the barren images on the wall. In "Sophist" and "Timaeus" in particular, Plato saw that there was interpenetration in reality. The sharp divide between image and reality suggested in the Cave allegory and in earlier dialogues is only part of the story.

Much modern philosophy rejects Plato and Platonizing, but Murdoch sees the force of Plato's criticism of art because she shares some of his underlying beliefs. She sees the purpose of thought and of philosophy as a movement beyond egoism and selfishness and grasping towards reality. And she shares in broad outline Plato's vague portrayal of a transcendent good to be comtemplated and brought to bear in human life. She does not do so in any Christian or Western religious way.Her view is more akin to Plato's pagan view, or to that of Eastern religion from which she also learned much. Thus, Murdoch is able to present Plato's criticism of art with force, finding that it is of "a fundamentally religious nature." (p. 65)

In the final pages of the book, Murdoch tries to respond to Plato on his, and her, own terms. The world of the forms and of transcendent reality is mixed in a way difficult to explain with the world of images. Art, in common with every human endeavor, is a mixture of the two.High art is directed to the good and to the transcendent and in taking the viewer, hearer, outside of the binds of ego and illusion. It is a short cut, perhaps, but one democratically open to all.When illumitating goodness and reality it is valuable. Murdoch's portrayal of a Platonically valuable art too adopts a philosophical basis that is not entirely contemporary. This can be thoughtful and valuable.It is interesting to read Murdock's novels, such as "The Sea The Sea" with an understanding of her philosophical perspectives and her conflicted relationship to Plato and to claims for a transcendent reality.

This book is short, difficult, and includes many insightful parallels to thinkers such as Freud and Kant in addition to its exploration of Plato's writing. I enjoyed revisiting this book andthinking about Plato.

Robin Friedman

Plato and Art
This text can be found in the collection Existentialists and Mystics, a compilation of her writings on Philosophy and Literature, published by Penguin ... Read more

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Hawkins explores traditional and contemporary ways grace has been handled in literature. Through these novels and short stories, Hawkins highlights the impoverishment of spirit and imagination when religious language fails us. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Uses Flannery O'Connor's work to illustrate how she, Walker Percy and Iris Murdoch wrote for their "unbelieving audience"...
Hawkins uses the four chapters which comprise this book to focus on the "central loss of Christianity in Western culture" and what this loss has meant to the literary art produced by Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Iris Murdoch.

Contends that the goal of these three authors -- just as it was for the writers of such classics as Canterbury Tales, the Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost, and The Pilgrim's Progress -- is to inspire readers to turn from wickedness "to love and do good."

Examines problems the three writers encounter as they continue in this tradition of "bringing the reader to a new state of consciousness and self-awareness." Then, discusses, in this context, O'Connor's realization that "she had to discover a new language of grace in order to confront the reader with the experience of God."

Outlines O'Connor's "strategy for approaching her audience," describes her "traditional Christian sensibility," and focuses on the context within which she considered her fiction realistic. Then, discusses her use of the bizarre and the grotesque, along with distortion and exaggeration to reach unbelieving readers; her use of biblical allusion; and her successful reliance upon her "narrational voice to suggest the ultimate meaning of her stories." Refers to the role of the narrator in John Huston's 1979 film version of Wise Blood, "Parker's Back," "Revelation," and "The Artificial Nigger," followed by a careful reading of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."

Devotes a chapter each to Walker Percy and Iris Murdoch, using O'Connor's work to illustrate and compare how each of the three worked to communicate with their "unbelieving audience." Suggests that Flannery O'Connor provides readers with "a set of critical terms and fictional strategies" to better understand how she and other Christian writers use "clarity and mystery" to bridge the gap between themselves and their readers.

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

a way bit over my head
I am sure it wonderful book, but it just was to much for my liking at this point in time in my life. ... Read more

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"Sacred Space, Beloved City: Iris Murdoch's London" is a celebration of Iris Murdoch's love for London and establishes her amongst distinguished 'London writers' such as William Blake, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf. Individual chapters of this title focus on the City, London art galleries and museums, the Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower), the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Whitehall and the River Thames. Each chapter identifies intricate links between the environment and human consciousness and is accompanied by a corresponding walk that links Murdoch's plots to landmarks and routes. All essays and walks are illustrated with sketches by Paul Laseau. These drawings not only illustrate locations for identification but also conjure their atmosphere so that readers engage with how Murdoch's characters experience their surroundings. The final London Glossary is an annotated index of the London place names mentioned in all of Murdoch's 26 novels. ... Read more

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In 1998 and 1999 John Bayley wrote two best-selling, critically acclaimed memoirs of his wife, the great philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, who had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease since 1996. In this edition, Iris and Iris and the Friends are published in one volume for the first time. At times unbearably moving, at times poignantly comical, the two memoirs provide a fitting memorial for Dame Murdoch, an enchanting portrait of a remarkable marriage and an inspiration for anyone whose life is affected by the tragedy of Alzheimer's. ... Read more

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I thought it would be much better
I only read about 40 some pages--and that was enough for me to decide I had enough. I was very interested to read this memoir, but it let me down. I think this book uses too many big words that I get lost in--that takes away from the author's experiences. It was also hard to follow who the author is speaking about and his relationship to them. ... Read more

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Iris Murdoch and Her Work assembles eighteen essays on the work of Iris Murdoch by scholars whose researches on Murdoch are already well-known. The book explores different aspects of Murdoch's work including her philosophy and fiction and focuses on a wide variety of issues ranging from reading Murdoch as a "fabulator" to the central role Murdoch plays in the "ethical turn". Approaching Murdoch's work from multiple perspectives, this book is of interest for Murdoch scholars and literature and philosophy students as well as for general readers. ... Read more

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Criticism on utopian subjects has generally neglected the literary or fictional dimension of utopia. The reason for such neglect may be that earlier utopian fictions tended to be written by what one would nowadays call social scientists, e.g., Plato or Sir Thomas More. That is also why earlier discussions of utopian fiction were usually written by critics trained in the social sciences rather than by critics trained in literature. To an appreciable degree this still tends to be the case today.

Now, however, there is an additional difficulty, for the social scientists are critiquing utopias written by people who are primarily literary, for example, Krishan Kumar on Wells or Bernard Crick on Orwell. Inevitably much of importance--of literary importance--is simply disregarded, and so our understanding of modern utopia is correspondingly diminished.

This book aims to put the fiction back into utopian fictions. While tracing the development of fiction in the writing of modern utopias, especially in Britain, it seeks to demonstrate in specific ways how those utopias have become increasingly literary--possibly as a reaction not only against the "social scientification" of modern utopias but also in reaction against the modern attempt to institute "utopia" in reality, notably in the former Soviet Union but also in consumerist, late-twentieth-century America. After an introductory discussion of how we understand--and how we should understand--modern utopian fictions, the book provides several examples of how those understandings affect our appreciation of utopian fiction. There are chapters on H. G. Wells's Time Machine; Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara; Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; George Orwell's Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four; William Golding's Lord of the Flies; and Iris Murdoch's The Bell. ... Read more

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A noted philosopher and one of the most gifted and prolific novelists of the twentieth century, Iris Murdoch has anticipated and shaped many of the issues central to current ethics. These include the relation between human identity and ideas of the good, the effect of the modern critique of religion on moral thought, the relation between ethics and literature, and the contemporary debate about liberalism. In the most comprehensive engagement with Murdoch's work to date, this volume gathers contributions from philosophers, theologians, and a literary critic to explore the significance of her ideas for contemporary thought.

Inspired by Murdoch's tenacious wrestling with basic questions of human existence, these essays not only clarify her thoughts on human goodness, but also move beyond the academy to reflect on how we can and ought to undertake the human adventure in our daily lives.

Contributors are Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, David Tracy, Cora Diamond, Maria Antonaccio, Elizabeth Dipple, Franklin I. Gamwell, Stanley Hauerwas, and William Schweiker.This volume also includes "Metaphysics and Ethics," a classic essay by Iris Murdoch. ... Read more

Product Description
"Sacred Space, Beloved City: Iris Murdoch's London" is a celebration of Iris Murdoch's love for London and establishes her amongst distinguished 'London writers' such as William Blake, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf. Individual chapters focus on the City, London art galleries and museums, the Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower), the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Whitehall and the River Thames. Each chapter identifies intricate links between the environment and human consciousness and is accompanied by a corresponding walk that links Murdoch's plots to landmarks and routes. All essays and walks are illustrated with sketches by Paul Laseau. These drawings not only illustrate locations for identification but also conjure their atmosphere so that readers engage with how Murdoch's characters experience their surroundings. The final London Glossary is an annotated index of the London place names mentioned in all of Murdoch's 26 novels. ... Read more

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This book will be of great value to philosophers, gender theorists, literary critics and others engaged with the questions of life's meaning and what a deepened understanding of it looks like. In "Iris Murdoch's Ethics: A Consideration of Her Romantic Vision", Megan Laverty draws upon the tradition of 'Philosophical Romanticism' to account for Murdoch's enigmatical quality and her embrace of paradoxical truths. Laverty's provocative, yet accessible, study analyses Murdoch's version of Kant's Copernican Revolution, the centrality of learning and the sublime to Murdoch's redemptive vision, and Murdoch's understanding of philosophy, imagination, freedom, love and art. Laverty interprets Murdoch's emphasis on humility and attention as a critique of the Romantic emphasis on irony and self-creation. Drawing on a range of literary and philosophical sources, Laverty's study is a testimony to the ongoing significance of Murdoch's contribution to a broad range of contemporary philosophical concerns. ... Read more

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A critical analysis of the philosophical and ethical imperatives which invade Iris Murdoch's fiction. The interaction of the mythical with the normal alongside the spiritual progress of the characters and their Freudian struggles, are examined using examples from many novels. ... Read more