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Brief Lives

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)

Gary Browning tells us why Iris Murdoch stands out as a twentieth century thinker.

Iris Murdoch matters for many reasons. She was an outstanding intellectual figure of the twentieth century, whose work makes sense of modernity and the history of her times. She set out an original philosophy which offered a new perspective on morals and metaphysics. She also wrote imaginative, interesting and fun novels. What makes her compelling is that her fiction and philosophy do not stand apart as discrete achievements: her novels deal imaginatively with themes and issues that characterise her philosophy, and her philosophy explains how art is to be understood.

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