Attention as a Quality of Consciousness: Aspects of Philosophy and Literature in the Work of Iris Murdoch

In the present study, we attempt to approach the notion of attention in the work of Iris Murdoch. Attention arises at the moment when the relentless self is selflessly transcended in an effort to see clearly, in a Platonic manner, the other. With different terms, Murdoch seeks to redefine moral philosophy by placing love at its center, since what is at stake is a spiritual pilgrimage through which human consciousness itself is shaped. And insofar as the transcendent falls within the realm of the ethical, non-representable and mysterious ideas of the Good are constituted, which find expression through art. Thus, the way in which literature and art converge so that philosophy may expand its processes establishes a field within which we are led toward truth.