Perception, Self, and Zen: On Iris Murdoch and the Taming of Simone Weil

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216275%3A25210%2F23%3A39921405" target="_blank" >RIV/00216275:25210/23:39921405 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/4/64" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/4/64</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8040064" target="_blank" >10.3390/philosophies8040064</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Perception, Self, and Zen: On Iris Murdoch and the Taming of Simone Weil

Original language description

How do we see the world aright? This question is central to Iris Murdoch&apos;s philosophy as well as to that of her great source of inspiration, Simone Weil. For both of them, not only our action, but the very quality of our being depends on the ability to see things as they are, where vision is both a metaphor for immediate understanding and a literal expression of the requirement to train our perception so as to get rid of illusions. For both, too, the method to achieve this goal is attention. For both, finally, attention requires a dethronement of the self, considered as the source of illusion. In this paper I investigate what moral perception means for each of these philosophers and how it operates through attention and its relationship with the self. I will show that, despite many striking similarities, Murdoch&apos;s project does not equal &apos;Weil minus God&apos;, but offers a different concept of the self, a different understanding of its removal, and therefore a different picture of attention and moral perception. In evaluating both views, I will gesture towards a third way represented by Zen Buddhism, which both philosophers variously consider but do not embrace.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60302 - Ethics (except ethics related to specific subfields)

Project

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Continuities

R - Projekt Ramcoveho programu EK

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Philosophies

ISSN

2409-9287

e-ISSN

2409-9287

Volume of the periodical

8

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

001057605900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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