An Interpretation Of The Solipsism In The Sea, The Sea In The Light Of Murdoch’s Moral Philosophy

Iris Murdoch enjoys great popularity and reputation in Great Britain. Her unique writing style and moral philosophy has won for her worldwide critical attention. In 2008, Murdoch was recognized by the Times as one of “the 50 greatest writers of the Great Britain since 1945.” She was nominated six times laureate of the Booker Prize—the highest accolade writers in English language could get. Murdoch finally won the prize with her novel The Sea, The Sea.Murdoch’s novels generally discuss how a person could strip his/ her solipsism away. My study ventures to interpret Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea in the light of her own unique moral philosophy, which diverts greatly in its opinions from common modern philosophies. Murdoch claims that the influence of modern philosophies induces people to become more self-centered. They see this world as easily knowable. For them, Free Will cannot be too much emphasized. They even equal human existence with the purely exertion of the Will. Consequently, modern people are prone to capture the world from their psychological perspective alone. The whole real world becomes the externalization of their innermost mental world. Murdoch traces the origin of this popular thinking to Kant-style morality, which undoubtedly believes nothing can’t be conquered by Reason. So in the absence of God, where can we find a remedy for this? Murdoch suggests that we should turn to the “Good”.In Murdoch’s moral theory, the Good exists as a reality, like the Sun. We are, somehow, all basking in its grace. Access to Murdoch’s “Good” requires the process of “unselfing”, by which we need to embrace the contingent and disordered aspect of the world. In the meanwhile, we need to admit differences between individuals. The theme of unselfing runs through Murdoch’s writings from beginning to end. Its critique of solipsism, which grows rampantly in the modern western civilization, also sheds light on problems we are facing nowadays. Murdoch’s replacing “God” with her own “Good”, perhaps, provides us with the cure for solipsism.