Beyond the Empty Will | Murdoch and Moral Vision

Iris Murdoch finds moral freedom in the patient work of seeing reality beyond the self.

This episode follows The Sovereignty of Good as a triptych of moral inquiry. It begins with the inner change that occurs when a person learns to see another more justly, even without any outward action.

It then follows Murdoch's account of prayer, Freud, grace, and the possibility of retaining moral transcendence after the traditional idea of God has faded. The final movement enters Plato's images of the sun and the cave, before turning to beauty, art, love, death, chance, and humility. Throughout, Murdoch challenges the picture of morality as a series of isolated choices and proposes attention as the patient activity through which consciousness becomes more truthful, less selfish, and more responsive to the real world.

The full episode is on YouTube and Spotify. Please listen only in safe, restful contexts.