VIRTUOUS LIVING - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

work of Maria Antonaccio, who reviewed the contributions of both Murdoch andCharles Taylor.2.2.1 Iris MurdochIris Murdoch, a moral thinker writing during the 1950s until recently, is perhapsamong those moral philosophers who have influenced the moral status quo followingthe concept of the moral agent-centred Virtue Ethics. This line of moral thinkingincludes scholars such as Charles Taylor and Mark D. Chapman, who wished torectify the foregone moral theories by supporting the perspective that human ability issufficient for a moral agent.Iris Murdoch pursued the defence of the individual and his/her autonomy as a moralagent in her works that have been quoted by many other scholars in moral philosophyboth for and against the prevailing moral state. Since the 1950s, her publications,especially The Sovereignty of Good (1970), have attracted a wide readership amongmany moral philosophers and theologians. These include “Stanley Hauerwas, CharlesTaylor, Susan Wolf, Martha Nussbaum and William Schweiker who have made use ofcentral insights from her thoughts in advancing their own constructive agendas withregard to moral thought ” (Antonaccio 2001:1; my italics) .Murdoch’s moral insights, like those of Anscombe’s article Modern MoralPhilosophy (1958) received less attention in the 1950s. However, since the 1980s,scholars in moral philosophy have realised that Murdoch’s submissions anticipatedthe contemporary agenda of Virtue Ethics. Murdoch’s contribution to moral thoughtfocused on strengthening the autonomy and freedom of the individual as “selflegislating”.Ultimately, Murdoch’s influence could be regarded as the mostentrenched in the current moral thought, since her insights strengthened not only therationality, freedom, and ability of an individual, but also the human metaphysicalaspect. Murdoch’s metaphysical concept compensates for the necessity of God and assuch serves as the psychological component of her moral stance (cf Antonaccio2001:312; also Chapman 385, 387,390), an element that was absent in the other moraltheories, namely deontological and utilitarianism.135