La schivata: una introduzione ad Iris Murdoch filosofa

This paper does not aim at explaining Murdoch’s philosophy, but at introducing to it, by pointing out how to approach it. Murdoch’s philosophical writing distinguishes itself from her narrative writing: between these two forms there is no continuity and yet they are not completely separated. There are exchanges between the two, which can be rightly understood thanks to the notion of “asymmetry without complementarity”. From this exchanges a kind of mobility is produced thanks to which Murdoch’s philosophy succeeds in avoiding to usurp the authority which belongs to reality. But which reality are we referring to? The one we encounter in living practical experience. Practical experience can become richer thanks to the mediating work that makes use of words and is guided by love. This work, however, neither aims at, nor brings to, a dialectic synthesis that conciliates every duality. To understand this point, in addition to Simone Weil’s thought, it is useful to recall Peirce’s conception of semiosis: indeed, thirdness is not a synthesis, but the condition of a movement which is not mere repetition.1