more on this theme
|
more from this text
Single Idea 22713
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love
]
Full Idea
Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.
Gist of Idea
Love is realising something other than oneself is real
Source
Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.215)
Book Ref
Murdoch,Iris: 'Existentialists and Mystics', ed/tr. Conradi,Peter [Chatto and Windus 1997], p.215
A Reaction
I suspect that this is a necessary condition for love, but not the thing itself. The realisation she describes may not be love. You would attain her realisation if you shared a prison cell with a terrifying psychopath.
The
22 ideas
from Iris Murdoch
|
20765
|
Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities
[Murdoch]
|
|
22591
|
We know perfection when we see what is imperfect
[Murdoch]
|
|
23563
|
Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts
[Murdoch]
|
|
22338
|
An unexamined life can be virtuous
[Murdoch]
|
|
22337
|
Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning
[Murdoch]
|
|
22341
|
Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living
[Murdoch]
|
|
22339
|
Love is a central concept in morals
[Murdoch]
|
|
22343
|
If I attend properly I will have no choices
[Murdoch]
|
|
22340
|
It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history
[Murdoch]
|
|
22342
|
Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing
[Murdoch]
|
|
22345
|
Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God
[Murdoch]
|
|
22347
|
Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness
[Murdoch]
|
|
22348
|
Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness
[Murdoch]
|
|
22346
|
Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world
[Murdoch]
|
|
22350
|
Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own
[Murdoch]
|
|
22351
|
Only a philosopher might think choices create values
[Murdoch]
|
|
22349
|
Art trains us in the love of virtue
[Murdoch]
|
|
22709
|
We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that
[Murdoch]
|
|
22712
|
Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love
[Murdoch]
|
|
22713
|
Love is realising something other than oneself is real
[Murdoch]
|
|
22715
|
Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake
[Murdoch]
|
|
22714
|
Because art is love, it improves us morally
[Murdoch]
|