Love and morality: Taking Iris different places

This dissertation consists of five papers about a wide range of topics: from moral duties to feminist thought and from biomedical enhancements to cancel culture. Love and morality are important concepts in all of them. More specifically: love and morality as inspired by philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, who argues that loving is what makes us better human beings. I take Murdoch to debates where she is not a regular guest. In taking her to these different debates, this dissertation not only contributes to theoretical discussions, but also shows that Murdoch’s concept of love is relevant for the more practical and everyday questions we have today about loving, feminism and social justice. The dissertation offers two new perspectives of Murdochian thought.

In the first new perspective, I look at debates in contemporary analytical philosophy of love. Murdoch’s conception of love has been largely overlooked within this domain: contemporary discussions in analytical philosophy of love miss out on discussing love as moral. I argue that Murdoch’s conception of love could offer additional insights about love and morality in these debates. If we open the debate up to conceptions of love that – like Murdoch’s – are (at least) compatible with morality, we could have discussions about how loving makes us better human beings. I furthermore argue that the contemporary analytical discussions that do view love as moral discuss a conception of love that leads to love involving egocentric fantasies. I argue that Murdoch’s conception of love has advantages over these accounts, for viewing love as a liberation from (egocentric) fantasies.

While the first new Murdochian perspective brings Murdoch into existing contemporary debates, the second perspective is adding a contemporary perspective to Murdoch’s original theory. This second perspective takes as its central question: could Murdoch’s conception of love make our society a better place? I take Murdoch’s theory from her individualistic approach to a more social approach, focusing on socio-political structures. I argue that Murdoch’s conception of love is relevant for contemporary fights for social justice. First, I argue that egocentric fantasies are particularly harmful, while focusing on social justice debates, such as feminism and anti-racism. Second, I suggest that Murdoch’s conception of love helps us move away from these egocentric fantasies. Through her concept of ‘love’ as moving from fantasy to reality, we can come to know the lived realities of others. This move takes Murdochian thought to a different level, incorporating contemporary insights from feminist philosophy, critical theory and social epistemology.