The Virtues of Metaphysics
This chapter provides a detailed overview of Murdoch’s philosophy as a whole, reviewing its major themes, chartings its influence and contributions to current thought, and suggesting its future prospects and applications. As such, it offers a summary of many of the themes contained in the rest of this volume. This chapter also includes a reading both of Existentialists and Mystics (the collection of Murdoch’s philosophical writings edited by Peter Conradi), as well as her last published work, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Central to my argument in this chapter is the importance of what Murdoch called “the two-way movement in philosophy” between metaphysics and empiricism, a fundamental pattern in Murdoch’s thought that recurs in different guises throughout her philosophy.
Keywords: metaphysics, empiricism, charles taylor, moral psychology, ontological proof, individual, consciousness, mysticism
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .