Analysis of Iris Murdoch in relation to Moral Philosophy

Famous author Iris Murdoch wrote “We are as real people, unfinished and full of blankness and jumble; only in our own illusioning fantasy are we complete.” This essay will analyse Murdoch’s quote, which is essentially about identity, and explain how it relates to autobiography. Murdoch’s notion of the autobiographical self will be explored, through a discussion of the theories of other authors, and also questioned and contrasted through the other notions of Self. The essay will also explore Murdoch’s ideas on illusioning fantasy which she believed provides people with a sense of completeness. These ideas will be questioned and challenged by opposing arguments.

Through this quote, Iris Murdoch made a rather dismal statement on the nature of mankind. She was saying that human beings are, as real people, “unfinished”, or like an unfinished stone, imperfect. In stating that people are “full of blankness and jumble”, Murdoch alluded to Buddhist philosophy: the self does not exist and the mind is ju

Challenging Murdoch’s definition of the Self – Are we “as real people” more than “unfinished” entities “full of blankness and jumble”?

Another group who would contest Murdoch’s concept of the Self would be those who support the experiential notion of selfhood, which portrays the Self as tangible, distinctive and inherent in all individuals. John Shotter (in Eakin, in Schacter and Scary, 2000: 290), psychologist, explains this notion of selfhood, “Central…is the apparently self-evident experience that one’s own self (one’s ‘I,’ or ego, or whatever else it may be called) exists somewhere ‘inside’ one, as something unique and distinct from all else that there is – and it is that, its substantial existence, which guarantees one’s personal identity”. Proponents of this view often feel that society forces people to conform and hide their authentic selves. Janet Frame (1987: 27), a writer who was institutionalized explains, “In order to survive I had to conceal my ‘I” what I really felt, thought and dreamed about”. Kirk Varndoe, in his essay on portraits and self portraiture (in Current Sociology, 1995: 175-174) claims that “The Self, paradoxically, has become so important that it cannot be dealt with directly, but demands instead a complex mixture of disclosure and disguise.” and that, “Impersonation [has become] the fundamental modern means of self expression”. This is another example of how people mask their true identities as they attempt to conform to society.

Some topics in this essay:
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