29. The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists

Murdoch, Iris

doi:10.1515/9781400848393-030

Cited by 1 publication

(9 citation statements)

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“…Although Murdoch acknowledges "the fundamentally religious nature of Plato's objections to art…Art is dangerous [for Plato] chiefly because it apes the spiritual and subtly disguises and trivializes it" ( [5], p. 65), she thinks that "Plato never did justice to the unique truth-conveying capacities of 4 I have discussed this argument in [6]. 5 I am concerned here only with Murdoch's definition of great art, and her understanding of its function.…”

Section: Murdoch's Five Ways From Art To Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 I am concerned here only with Murdoch's definition of great art, and her understanding of its function. For further discussion of the definition of art, please see, for example, [7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Murdoch's Five Ways From Art To Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…art" ( [5], p. 85). In this section, I identify five ways in which, according to Murdoch, great art supports moral/religious belief and practice.…”

Section: Murdoch's Five Ways From Art To Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Murdoch, great art shows us "the world as we were never able so clearly to see it before" ( [5], p. 78) by leading us towards "a juster, clearer, more detailed, more refined understanding of human nature, or of the natural world which crowds upon our senses" ( [11], p. 90). For example, she suggests, Rubens' painting of the Last Supper shows Judas' dog sitting under his chair, which invites us to see him not simply as the villain whose action led to the death of Christ but as a sinful human being with redeeming qualities ( [3], p. 86)-like other sinful human beings-and thus to conclude that human nature is never unambiguously good or bad.…”

Section: Art As Revelationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first is a set of "arguments from experience concerned with the realism which we perceive to be connected with goodness" ( [1], p. 75), which is developed in her chapter on the Ontological Proof in the Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals ([3], Chapter 13) 4 . I focus here on the second argument, "the love and detachment which is exhibited in great art" ( [1], p. 75), an argument which is developed in Chapters 1, 4 and 5 of the Metaphysics but permeates much of her philosophical writing 5 . I suggest that this argument has five distinct but related strands, and argue that, taken together, these may be regarded as a cumulative case for the existence of the Good/God.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Images of Reality: Iris Murdoch’s Five Ways from Art to Religion

Burns

2015

Religions

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Art plays a significant role in Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy, a major part of which may be interpreted as a proposal for the revision of religious belief. In this paper, I identify within Murdoch's philosophical writings five distinct but related ways in which great art can assist moral/religious belief and practice: art can reveal to us "the world as we were never able so clearly to see it before"; this revelatory capacity provides us with evidence for the existence of the Good, a metaphor for a transcendent reality of which God was also a symbol; art is a "hall of reflection" in which "everything under the sun can be examined and considered"; art provides us with an analogue for the way in which we should try to perceive our world; and art enables us to transcend our selfish concerns. I consider three possible objections: that Murdoch's theory is not applicable to all forms of art; that the meaning of works of art is often ambiguous; and that there is disagreement about what constitutes a great work of art. I argue that none of these objections are decisive, and that all forms of art have at least the potential to furnish us with important tools for developing the insight required to live a moral/religious life.

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Section: Murdoch's Five Ways From Art To Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%