Heritage And Development Of Sartre’s Philosophical Ideas

Iris Murdoch, as an outstanding novelist and philosopher occupies an important place for herself in British literary world. Unlike other philosophers who simply vigorously advertise philosophical ideas, Murdoch subtly melts her philosophy into the novels. The writer and the readers are unaware it but Murdoch’s philosophical ideas have been appreciated after the completion of the reading. This uniqueness pushes Murdoch’s fame up.Murdoch’s philosophy can be condensed into one word of "Good". In a rapidly and constantly changing world, the darkness of the reality is unavoidable. Drifting through life, one will bog down deeper and deeper, while changing the thought will have a better life. Thus, Good is the new hope that Murdoch seeks for the lost people. Murdoch’s exploration on the route, the method and probable hindrances of pursuing Good will be perfectly shown in Murdoch’s original point of view.General studies on Murdoch are from the angles of existentialism, realism, psychoanalysis and feminism. They usually analyze reflection and influence of love, art and the weaknesses of human nature in Murdoch’s novels. However, analyzing on the formation of Murdoch’s idea on pursuing Good in the respect of Sartre’s philosophy is not enough, especially the application in A Fairly Honourable Defeat. This thesis sets about from the French philosopher and novelist Sartre’s influence on Murdoch in philosophy and then probes into the thread of Murdoch’s detailed views to have a comprehensive and profound display on the forming process of Murdoch’s Good.This thesis mainly analyzes Murdoch’s heritage and development of Sartre’s points. On the one hand, Murdoch accepts Sartre’ cognition of the dark side of reality and created the character, Julius, a representative of the evil. He has experienced persecution and tends hurt others as what he experienced. On the other hand, Sartre chose to negatively cope with the darkness, while Murdoch chose to actively meet the challenges, which is just the development of Sartre’s point of view. Murdoch also created a character, Tallis, who is a real incarnation of Good. He lives in a mess but he sincerely cares about and helps others. Tallis is the central figure in the story and the deep-seated meaning and impact of his being are the focus of attention and discussion as well. Tallis is the new hope that Murdoch took shape for human beings. Tallis is the ultimate goal of human beings as well. The path to pursue Good is still a long, winding and hard process.