Men, Animals and Stones: Ethical Reflections in Murdoch’s The Green Knight

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Leilei Liu

Abstract

Iris Murdoch is a contemporary British novelist and philosopher whose moral philosophy is centered on the concept of “Good”. It’s claimed that by attending to “the other”, one can remove fantasies and illusions, achieve “unselfing” and approach “Good”. Murdoch was deeply influenced by Eastern religious philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and she has been studying Heidegger’s philosophy for nearly thirty years and has been deeply influenced by his philosophical thoughts. Heidegger: The Pursuit of Being is her unpublished manuscript on the philosopher. “The other” not only covers individuals, but also animals and material entities. Thus, in the context of both Eastern and Western religion and philosophies, the paper investigates the relationship between self and other individuals, self and animals, and self and stones in her penultimate novel The Green Knight, thereby examining her ethical reflections.

Published: Nov 14, 2022

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Individual Sessions: Words and Images Crossing Literary and Critical Borders