Show Notes
In this episode Miles is joined by Lesley Chamberlain to discuss her newly-published monograph, 'Undoing the Moral Empire: Moral Philosophy in post-War Britain'.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/undoing-the-moral-empire-9781350457751/
After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country.
The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew.
The lives and works of the philosophers discussed in this book were caught up this sea-change. Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Richard Wollheim, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre were all characters in search of a moral England, with a particular vision of the good society. From communitarianism to swinging Sixties' individualism, and radical theories of art – which understood questions of ambiguity, error and forgiveness more than the state ever could – this is the story of their sometimes convergent but often discrepant ideas on ethical life in the second half of the twentieth century.
Undoing the Moral Empire is a work of biography, social history and the history of ideas that masterfully reconstructs the shifting sentiments of the post-war era, reconfiguring enduringly relevant questions of freedom, virtue, and society.
Lesley is an author, literary critics and translator whose work has focused on Rilke, Nietzsche, German philosophy, Conservative Modern Russia, Heidegger, Van Gogh, Lenin, Freud, travel writing, cuisine in Russia and Poland, journalism and fiction – twelve books in all. She’s also the author of the forthcoming chapter on Murdoch and Russian Literature in the Oxford Handbook of Iris Murdoch. This new book marks a homecoming for Lesley. You can find out much more about her work at her website:
More from The Iris Murdoch Society podcast
In this episode Miles is joined by Justin Broackes (Brown, USA) and Matt Dougherty (CEU, Vienna) to discuss the influence of Martin Heidegger on Murdoch's philosophy, and Murdoch's forthcoming work on Heidegger which has been edited by Justin.
In this episode Miles discusses Murdoch's eighteenth novel, Henry and Cato, on the 50th anniversary of its publication.
In this episode Miles is joined by Elizabeth Whittome to discuss the profound influence Shakespeare had on the fiction, poetry and philosophy of Iris Murdoch. The conversation ranges widely across Murdoch's life and work, with special attention paid to her novels of the 1970s, including The Black Prince and The Sea, The Sea.
In this episode Miles is joined by Rebecca Moden (Birmingham Newman University, UK) to discuss the new exhibition at the University of Chichester, Iris Murdoch among the Artists. Drawing on newly-discovered artworks by Murdoch, those by her friends, students and collaborators, and new works by three contemporary British artists responding to her fiction and philosophy, the exhibition runs until the 10th December.
In this Birthday Lecture Daniel Read (Kingston University, UK) discusses Murdoch's dramatic work and the connections to her life, fiction and philosophy. Although lesser-known, Read makes the case that her dramatic work needs to be reassessed in the light of new materials and biographical insights.