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Philosophical Haiku

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)

by Terence Green

Perceive but not touch
An abstract reality:
God become the Good

Perhaps better known as a philosophical novelist than as a philosopher, in her novels Iris Murdoch explored in intense depth the inner lives of her vast panoply of characters. In this she was an heir to the literary tradition that includes Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Proust. Murdoch also spent fifteen years teaching philosophy at Oxford University.

She was born in Phibsborough, Dublin, moving to London with her family when just a few weeks old.

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