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date: 24 June 2021

Abstract and Keywords

It is quite clear that love plays an absolutely crucial role in Iris Murdoch’s philosophy. This chapter argues that Murdoch, in contrast to much contemporary philosophy, does not so much develop a theory of love that explains why and in what sense love is good or bad for philosophy. Murdoch’s problem is not the question whether one ought to bring the concept of love into other regions of thought, but to make clear that love is always already there. Murdoch is not asking us to broaden our concept of morality (or knowledge, or art) in such a way that love can be included. Murdoch should rather be seen as inquiring into, and questioning, an exclusion. She is asking us to pay attention to love and to think about why it has been blotted out, and by which means.

Keywords: love, Eros, vision, knowledge, good, attention, moral, perfectionism

Niklas Forsberg

Niklas Forsberg, Uppsala University, Department of Philosophy

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