Iris Murdoch: Literature, Moral psychology, Platonism

Abstract

The idea according to which we could conceive of artistic activity as a kind of platonic endeavour might sound contradictory especially if we think about the awkward position in which Plato placed the artists and, more concretely, the mythologists. Literature bewitches understanding and produces images that distort the nature of what it talks about. Iris Murdoch is well-aware of this criticism and accepts part of it and its moral consequences. Nevertheless, she proposes a reflection about art that underlines the central role that literature plays when we try to get rid of the misleading images that our fantasy builds about reality and ourselves. According to Murdoch, literature has the aim of portraying human situations in a way that makes reading an activity not only highly aesthetic but also fully cognitive and a mirror of moral life.