![]() The major disagreement she had with the existentialist position was its emphasis on choice, a belief Murdoch characterized as “unrealistic, over-optimistic, romantic” because it fails to consider the true nature of human consciousness and what she called “a sort of continuous background with a life of its own.” Existentialism, which she called “the last fling of liberal Romanticism in philosophy,” presents humanity with “too grand” a conception of itself as isolated from its surroundings and capable of rational, free choice. ![]() ![]() ![]() Although early influenced by Sartrean existentialism, she developed a radically different view of the human condition. Her moral philosophy, which entails a rejection of existentialism, behaviorism, and linguistic empiricism, informs her fiction throughout and provides a basis for an interpretation of both the content and the form of her work. ![]() A knowledge of Iris Murdoch’s (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) philosophical and critical essays is invaluable for the reader wishing to understand her fiction. ![]()
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