Reduce Ourselves to Zero?: Sabina Lovibond, Iris Murdoch, and Feminism

Hypatia 30 (4):743-759 (2015)
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Abstract

In her book Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy, Sabina Lovibond argues that Iris Murdoch's philosophical and literary work is covertly dedicated to an ideology of female subordination. The most central and interesting aspect of her multifaceted argument concerns Murdoch's focus on the individual person's moral self-scrutiny and transformation of consciousness. Lovibond suggests that this focus is antithetical to the kind of communal and structural criticism of society that has been essential for the advance of feminism. She further reads Murdoch's dismissal of “structuralism” as proof of Murdoch's alleged conservatism and neglect of feminist concerns. In this article I will argue that this line of argument—though not completely off-base concerning the awkwardness of Murdoch's relation to feminism— gives a misleading picture of Murdoch's philosophical and ideological position, and establishes a problematic antagonism between moral self-scrutiny and social criticism, which a closer look at Murdoch's work can help us overcome

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References found in this work

Modern Moral Philosophy.G. E. M. Anscombe - 1958 - Philosophy 33 (124):1 - 19.
Metaphysics as a guide to morals.Iris Murdoch - 1993 - New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Allen Lane, Penguin Press.
Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature.Iris Murdoch - 1998 - Allen Lane/the Penguin Press. Edited by Peter J. Conradi.
Moral perception and particularity.Lawrence Blum - 1991 - Ethics 101 (4):701-725.

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