Philosophy’s Dangerous Pupil: Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Derrida and The Philosopher’s Pupil

Abstract

I ended the previous chapter by highlighting areas where Murdoch’s theory does not correspond to her fiction. To summarize, we might say that the source of the contradictions in her work is the clash of two powerful and perhaps irreconcilable impulses: the desire to totalize and the desire to reflect what is irreducible and particular. This is hardly surprising given that this theme is constantly played out in various ways within her characters and plots — for example, in the ‘artist—saint’ dichotomy which runs through her fiction. In this chapter I want to consider further the contradictory nature of Murdoch’s thought and writing by turning to a novel which bears a curious relationship to her first-person retrospective fiction, and indeed to the rest of her work, The Philosopher’s Pupil.

The anguish of the philosopher comes about because philosophy touches impossibility […]. It’s impossible for the human mind to dominate the things which haunt it.

Haffenden, Novelists in Interview