The moral philosophy of Iris Murdoch: Boundary and bridge between secular and Christian ethics in the late twentieth century

It is the thesis of this dissertation that the philosophical work of Iris Murdoch plays something of a diplomatic role in ethics in our day by bringing secular and Christian moral philosophy into the same arena of discussion. Her moral philosophy builds some bridges for moral discourse between Christian and secular thought because it has provided, first, arguments which defend the value of Christian thought to a secular world and, second, material for the discussion.;In the second place, the constructive portion of Murdoch's moral philosophy offers another kind of bridge which has drawn Christian and secular ethical ideas into the same conversation. Murdoch advocates certain basic concepts in moral thought, such as the inner mental life of the moral agent (person) and the notion of a transcendent ideal. These are ideas that her constructive philosophy has in common with Christianity, which in fact helped inspire Murdoch's version of them. While her version of these ideas is a secular one, it can be used from within a Christian point of view. Murdoch's work has thus given ethics culture- and creed-neutral concepts on the subject of ideals and the nature of the moral agent. These concepts have facilitated dialogue in ethics in which Christian moral philosophy is a renewed participant and in which its claims regain a hearing in the larger academic circle outside of theology.;In the first place, Murdoch successfully attacks and dismantles arguments which have in the recent past been used to deny the legitimacy of a religious framework for moral philosophy. Thus the critical portion of her philosophical work has helped to reopen the discussion in ethics to those who wish to argue, within the mainstream of scholarly debate, a specifically religious moral philosophy. Murdoch writes as a non-Christian. This "bridge" provided by her critical arguments is therefore the more serviceable because it is "built" from the secular side which in recent times has dominated and been so inhospitable to Christian ethical thought. Her arguments have contributed to a defense of the philosophical respectability of Christian moral reasoning among its cultured despisers.