ABSTRACT
Simone Weil’s influence on Iris Murdoch is immense. In this chapter, I look at the way in which Weil’s philosophy serves as an inspiration for Murdoch, at some key concepts Murdoch adopts from Weil, and at crucial points of departure. Murdoch is deeply impressed by the wide variety of philosophical and religious traditions Weil draws from and the thoroughness of her thinking. She adopts key terms and their meaning and makes them central to her own philosophy: attention, unselfing, and, to some extent, void. But when it comes to suffering—a theme central to Weil’s thinking—Murdoch seems to part ways. I try to show that while Weil is interested in affliction as an instance of a self destroyed, decreated, annihilated, and thus open to receiving God’s grace, Murdoch thinks of suffering as an occasion for ordinary virtue: we should try to alleviate the suffering in others and ourselves by trying to reconnect to the Good by whichever means are available. The difference between Weil and Murdoch’s moral thought culminates in the difference between their moral role models: depersonalised saints for Weil, and mothers of large families for Murdoch.
