Études Britanniques Contemporaines (Dec 2020)
Anti-Nausea: Iris Murdoch and the Natural Goodness of the Natural World
Abstract
This essay discusses the importance of the intrinsic value of the natural world to Iris Murdoch, drawing on evidence not only from her published philosophy, fiction and reviews, but also from her unpublished journals and poetry. It contends that Murdoch finds Sartre’s horror of contingency a fault and that her journal entries show her kinship with Virginia Woolf in regard to their feeling for nature. It concludes that Murdoch was increasingly anxious about the fragile future of the planet in the 21st Century and had long been aware of the oncoming ecological crisis.
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