Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals

...The Good is not a thing, an idea of goodness as the supreme and as well as a demythologized theology, have nor localizable, any more than is God...

...a time it was generally held they had the lowest levels, omnipresent...

...We are to ascend from lection of facts...

...Various types in reason and reality...

...I am deeply puzzled why remarks concerning the spiritual journey duties and failures of daily life, is puri- Murdoch cites Weil with such praise, but from egotism to goodness that is central fying...

...First, we can morally manage without Pax World is a no-load, The Fund does not invest God...

...Any notion of life summarized as an update of Plato's alle- dependent reality...

...The ability, for instance, to take to unmask as a tissue of grammati- tour, is the primary locus of her argument, think justly about what is evil, or to love cal confusions...

...philosophy...

...Murdoch delights the reader with the rich, perceptive, and often unusual connections she makes...

...Past perforcan a demythologized Christianity...

...Truthfulness, the search itual growth, much less as a pilgrimage the illusions cast by the fire of our ego- for truth, for a closer connection between from egoistic desires toward the never centrism to the reality made visible by the thought and reality, demands and effects achieved goal of perfection, is so laugh- form of the Good...

...and 403(b) Pension Plans...

...services...

...Nature poses questions which are ages...

...wherever encountered, whether through the sort of objections to a personal God Some of Simone Weil's most profound art, philosophy, religion, or the ordinary Murdoch raises...

...phy and of life...

...Pax invests in Regular Accounts, IRAs, F U N D Educational Accounts, Third, we need a theology that can con- such industries as pollution control, health care, Custodial Accounts for tinue without God in our now sophisti- food, clothing, housing, For a free prospectus and Minors, SEP-IRAs, Autocated, come-of-age world...

...For magnetism is nevertheless, and even at tion that reduces Christianity to morals...

...The analytic philosophers in general, Ayer ly develops her views in her examination contrast between states of illusion cheerfully dismisses questions of truth, of thinkers, religions, and works of art...

...voted to Schopenhauer or Wittgenstein...

...The idea of Good cannot be vived," even though there is very little about mate source of all power...

...Good...

...Murdoch means by the form of the Good, sition jarred me...

...It must It is not insignificant that the person on been "thought away" by Hume and Kant...

...Each represents not wholly, but at least more intelligible a very different view of philoso- Diogenes Allen than in any of her previous writings...

...BOOKS Pinch-hitting for God recently saw a newspaper photo- METAPHYSICS AS A GUIDE TO MORALS The thesis of the book turns on the folgraph of Iris Murdoch standing Iris Murdoch lowing passage, which makes what next to A.J...

...For Period Ending 12/31/92 $2871 Whatever one makes of the recom- 1 Year: 0.63 $2599 5 Years: 13.34 mendation to replace God with Good, it at 10 Years: 13.31 $2081 least answers the question of Murdoch's $1819 $ 1866 $1677 relation to Christianity, a question that has $ 1242 $ 1334 puzzled her readers for a long time...

...We feel the attraction of reality, does not wrestle with this worthy person's to Murdoch involve the struggle to bring as iron filings feel the pull of a magnet...

...Weil was very familiar with wrestle with the possibility of a Creator...

...From this point of view, Murerful resistance...

...devotion to God...

...this idea in a unique manner from the the title of what must be her philosophical magnum opus...

...not been qualified...

...On sheer intellectual grounds, What is higher is, as Eckhart observed, Weil, however idiosyncratic a Christian it is evident that God the creator is a posinside the soul...

...Ayer...

...Wilson Commonweal 23 April 1993: 25...

...Some of the most troublesome issues we encounter as we try to understand ourselves as moral beings are engaged as she slow- "A room with a breathtaking view of being and nothingness...

...there is no Platonic "elsewhere," ined with anything like the attention de- beyond the limits of science, and perhaps similar to the Christian "elsewhere...

...But Good is only one of God's appears arbitrary...

...She even goes so the Good is wholly immanent, even if it tial human aim or task, and to separate far as to use the word "metaphysics" in transcends the self...

...What is new in this book, an exercise of virtues and a purification able as to be unworthy of the effort it would in addition to her wide-ranging shopping of desires...

...She has in ear- another person unselfishly, involves a grimage is the central human task...

...philosophy does not...

...For Ayer, science gives Metaphysics is inspired by a gifted thinkus knowledge...

...Their juxtapo- The Penguin Press, $35, 520 pp...

...Second, with the supportive products and of account are available: rise of science, Christianity is fading...

...Now she applies to her position the expressions "neo-Christianity" and "modern Christianity," and cites with ap- 12/86 12/87 12/88 12/89 12/90 12/91 12/92 12/82 12/83 12/84 12/85 proval the words with which A.N...

...As reality, it is not "elsewhere...

...Like er's scrutiny of his own thoughts...

...especially literature, is one of the great- here in a long chapter she rehearses the Thought, goodness, and reality are thus est aids in this journey...

...She $ 1000 has frequently called herself "a fellow traveler...

...The Good is present in Good that allows Murdoch to fill the log- doch's judgment that God is a dispensevery good act, and every truthful and just ical space occupied by God with the able notion, intellectually and morally, thought...

...God is also Creator, and the ultistruggle...

...but harmful to the spiritual life...

...future results...

...she may have been, and however much sible answer...

...Braithwaite (see, An Empiricist's View of Religious Ten-Year Total Return $3468 $3490 Beliefs, 1955), Christian stories as en- Average Annual Rate of Return livening spiritual images...

...Therefore, with Pax there This is not a solicitation in those Send no money...

...For Murdoch such a pil- the ontological argument...

...together with integrity the notions of It draws us away from other attractions To put the point in another way, there power and goodness, i.e., a Creator and and at times overcomes the ego's pow- is a one-sided concentration on God as the Good...

...Murdoch's presentation of her views calls to mind a person going into various shops, looking over the merchandise, and making comments to a friend about the merits, demerits, and usefulness of the items on display...

...1-800-767-1729 does in Buddhism and Hinduism...

...Unlike God, PAX Africa, or the tobacco, designed for those who Good meets the criteria of metaphysics: wish to receive income alcohol, or gambling it is an unconditioned, absolute element and to invest in life- W O R L D industries...

...In short, she has given escapable questions concerning the in actual human proceedings, where its us her version of the long familiar posi- existence and order of the universe...

...God can be, but morality itself, diversified, open-end, in weapons production, balanced mutual fund nuclear power, South cannot be "thought away...

...Art, lier writings mentioned its importance, but discipline of intellect and emotion...

...Truth" is not a colas primarily concerned with moral or spir- gory of the cave...

...Fourth, religion education, energy, and other materials call toll-free: matic Investment Plans, can exist without a personal God, as it leisure activities...

...Murdoch recommends that Good take the place of God for several reasons...

...The intensity of Rorty, who also looks to literature as a ture on it with the ultimate intention of plac- Plato's vision of this connection forces guide for the moral life, Murdoch does not ing Good in the logical space previously him (if one may put it thus) to separate abandon philosophy...

...selfish habits or egoistic fantasy) and goodness, and purpose with which phil- The core of her position has long been honest clarified truthful serious thinkosophers have wrestled in past ages as familiar to us from her previous philo- ing suggests a moral picture of the mind metaphysical illusions to be dissolved by sophical writings and novels, and can be as a continuous engagement with an inlogical-linguistic clarity...

...Comparisons are made between what is seen in the shop called "Fact and Value" and something seen in the shop called "Schopenhauer" or "Wittgenstein and the Inner Life...

...Sixth, but A SOCIAL R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y FUN D we are to keep, as did R.B...

...Fifth, are social as well as states where the securities hove mance is no guarantee of a supernatural deity is not only irrelevant, economic dividends...

...Reality, people to pray...

...Because Murdoch focuses What I make of this is as follows: Rea- she stressed impersonality and our "de- exclusively on morality she does not enlity, not what egoism and unpurified de- creation," nonetheless prayed and taught counter these questions, and so does not sires make of reality, is good...

...be kept in mind that Plato is talking in whom Murdoch most relies for her views We have recently learned that they did not metaphysical metaphors, myths, im- on morality, Simone Weil, is not exam- succeed...

...But fundamental requirement, the essenimportant roles to play...

...So too Minimum investment is $250...

...24: 23 April 1993 Commonweal imperfect hurly-burly of the human concludes his book Jesus, "Jesus has sur- names...

...She believes that it, occupied by God...

...Unlike Richard argument and some of the recent litera- seen to be connected...

...There are incompromised or tainted by its inclusion Jesus in her book...