[SydPhil] University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series, Melissa Merritt, (University of New South Wales)

[Ryan Cox]

Hi everyone,

This week's speaker in the University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series is Melissa Merritt, (University of New South Wales)

The title of the talk is "Murdoch on Moral Activity and the Gospels as Art". Here is an abstract for the talk:

This paper examines two theses from the philosophy of Iris Murdoch. The first is her view (developed especially in The Sovereignty of Good) that moral activity is centrally a matter of love, conceived as infinitely perfectible “knowledge of the individual”. What is philosophically distinctive in her thesis, I suggest, turns on her conception of the singularity of the activity itself — that it can only ever be done “alone and differently” (61). The second is Murdoch’s claim that “art is … a case of morals” with respect to the discipline of attention, or love, that it properly involves (58). These ideas remain difficult and provocative, despite their role in reshaping ethics in what have become familiar, even mainstream, ways. I re-examine them in light of Murdoch’s avowed debt to “the Christian ethic, whose centre is an individual” (28). The Gospels narrate the life of Jesus, an individual who loved individuals: so do the Gospels present moral activity as Murdoch understands this – and if so, how? I suggest that the answer is tied to the question of whether we can read them as art. I draw on Murdoch’s conception of moral activity to consider the aesthetically and theologically delicate status of the Gospels as art. I conclude by looking more closely at the representation of love in the Gospels as a way to bring to light what might justify Murdoch’s placement of love at the centre of human goodness.

The seminar will take place at 3:30pm on Wednesday Sep 17 in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494).

Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au

Ryan Cox
Lecturer in Philosophy
Discipline of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Sydney
ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au
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