The Good

It is no exaggeration to say that the concept of the Good is absolutely central to understanding Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy. But to understand her reference to the Good and its place in human life it is a help first to understand the role that metaphor, as she sees it, plays it in our lives. Metaphors for her are not just ‘useful models [but] fundamental forms of awareness of our condition’ (SGC 363). In that sense all philosophy, and especially, she thinks, moral philosophy, uses metaphors as a way of understanding our human condition. Murdoch’s contribution to moral philosophy then can be understood first, as arguing that the pervasive metaphors operative in contemporary moral philosophy are inadequate for our self-understanding and for morality, and second, that we have available to us alternative metaphors through which we might better understand ourselves and our condition and the possibilities for our moral improvement.