Why Iris Murdoch Matters

The complex relationships Murdoch so carefully lays bare in her novels show the misery that people inflict on themselves and others by failing to attend properly to the reality at hand. Her philosophical works on metaphysics and ethics display her unique reaction to the dryness and radical individualism of the overly abstract philosophies of existentialist and analytic philosophers, who depict moral agents as freely choosing wills unencumbered, and undefined by, personal relations, detached from the communities in which they live. Murdoch attempts to recover traditional values lost in these philosophies by intimations in experience of the unifying presence of goodness that transcends subjective satisfaction. Good art and literature enable people to see and become more sensitive to the experience of others. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
CHOICE
She had a significant impact on some brilliant philosophers: Cora Diamond, John McDowell, Martha Nussbaum, and Charles Taylor. But she is not widely read ... Her work may be more visible now, but progress is slow. Browning's accessible, wide-ranging book will help accelerate it.
Los Angeles Review of Books
A stunning account of the philosophical and, to a lesser degree, political, underpinning of Murdoch's novel writing ... written in precise, rich prose, this is an important contribution to the growing sphere of Iris Murdoch studies but should also prove to be of immense interest to the general reader alike.
Irish Times