Iris Murdoch: “We need a moral…”

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to The Sovereignty of Good and files it under Platonic Moral Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) was an Irish-British philosopher and novelist who revived moral attention to the good against mid-century linguistic narrowness. A student at Oxford and briefly influenced by Sartre, she turned toward Plato.

Interpretation

Murdoch is criticising the moral philosophy of her own time for organising itself around choice, duty, and will, leaving no place for the attention to particular people that she thinks moral life actually consists in. Her claim is that love is not a sentiment added to a theory but the capacity without which the theory describes nothing recognisable. The argument belongs to her broader case against the view that moral reality is made by decision.

Why it matters

It points at something most ethical frameworks omit: the long, unglamorous work of noticing someone accurately before any decision is called for.

Concepts in this quote

Love: Love in philosophy ranges from friendship and desire to care, justice, and the transformation of the self.
Morality: Morality in philosophy concerns right and wrong, obligation, and the standards by which we judge persons and acts.
Attention: Attention appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat attention as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Iris Murdoch. (n.d.). We need a moral philosophy in which the concept of love… can once again be made central. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0477

MLA: Iris Murdoch. “We need a moral philosophy in which the….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0477.

Chicago: Iris Murdoch. “We need a moral philosophy in which the….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0477.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “We need a moral philosophy in which the…”?

The passage is attributed to Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good. The archive attributes this English wording to The Sovereignty of Good and files it under Platonic Moral Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Iris Murdoch mean by love?

Greek distinctions among eros, philia, and agape, Confucian relational ethics, and modern debates about romantic love keep the theme philosophically precise rather than merely sentimental. This passage enters that discussion through love, morality, attention.