The Good

Abstract

The concept of the Good is central to understanding Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy. Central for understanding her conception of the Good, which she derives from Plato, is the role that metaphor plays it in our lives. Metaphors for her are not just ‘useful models [but] fundamental forms of awareness of our condition’ (SGC 363). In that sense all philosophy, and especially, she thinks, moral philosophy, uses metaphors as a way of understanding our human condition. Murdoch’s contribution to moral philosophy then can be understood first, as arguing that the pervasive metaphors operative in contemporary moral philosophy are inadequate for our self-understanding and for morality, and second, that we have available to us alternative metaphors through which we might better understand ourselves and our condition and the possibilities for our moral improvement.