ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits Iris Murdoch’s engagement with Anselm’s ontological proof. It offers a reading of Murdoch’s discussion of the ontological proof that is concerned with the form and purpose of ethical thought. The suggestion is that her interest in the ontological proof has perhaps more to do with its form than its content, and that this attention to form relates in distinctive ways to her sustained work on the nature of moral thought, metaphysics, and the forms and purpose of moral philosophy. Especially for philosophers educated in the analytic tradition, this reading contains a critical challenge to reconsider the roles of reason, argumentation, and certain conceptions of theory in contemporary moral philosophy.
