Seeking For Goodness:Virtue Ethics In Iris Murdoch's The Sea,the Sea

Acknowledged as the prominent British novelist and philosopher, Iris Murdoch is well-known for her own philosophical and ethical ideas through her novels, which make her novels famous for broad and mass philosophical thoughts. This thesis, under the framework of agent-based virtue ethics, combining Plato's Cave Metaphor, aims to make an interpretation into the journey of Charles, the protagonist in Iris Murdoch's representative work The Sea, the Sea, who falls into the ethical dilemma as a result of a lack of moral traits of inner strength, universal benevolence and caring, but makes his way to "Goodness" in the end. Furthermore, the thesis reveals Charles'pilgrimage to "Goodness" which is the essence of Murdoch's philosophy.The paper consists of three parts, namely, the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introduction part mainly introduces the significant literary achievement of Murdoch in different periods. Besides, it analyzes her thoughts of moral philosophy and the main plots in her work The Sea, the Sea. Overseas and Domestic Research Status is given in this part, and on the basis of that, the questions and viewpoints at the present stage are put forward.The body part is divided into three chapters. The first part of the paper introduces Slote's theory of virtue ethics which bases on behaviors. According to Slote, when we make evaluation to one's morality, one's motivation should be taken into consideration. In the paper, we set off from the perspectives of these three motives-the inner power, the common benevolence as well as care and come into conclusion that the hero Charles lacks the motivation for behaving gracefully so that what he has done is immorally.The second part emphasizes the fundamental factors for Charles incapacity of behaving good, combining Slote's theory of moral sentiments of empathy and rational dilemma with Murdoch's philosophical thoughts of "contingences". Further descriptions about the obstacles on Charles way of pursuing "Goodness" and explanations about all kinds of difficulties he has met are given in this part.With Slote's moral orders, as well as Plato's Cave Metaphor and Murdoch's religious concepts, the third part reveals the truth about how Charles promotes his spiritual consciousness, from initial moral obstacles to his reflection, and eventually, stepping on the way to "Goodness".From the analysis of Charles'experiencing both failure and success on his way to "Goodness", a summary about the strategies and methods to reach "Goodness" in a moral sense could be made to some extent. The way to the "Goodness" is full of twists and turns as well as thrones, if human beings would realize their moral virtues and do good deeds, they should only eliminate their immoral motivations constantly, possessing the empathy of concern and accepting the accidents in reality.