ABSTRACT
Iris Murdoch’s Acastos is an unusual text. It consists of two contemporary philosophical dialogues: ‘Art and Eros’, a dialogue about art, and ‘Above the Gods’, a dialogue about religion. After finishing The Fire and the Sun, Murdoch was asked to rewrite some of its arguments for a theatre performance. She thought it would be impossible to do so, but then, in the next few months, wrote the two dialogues. At the time, only one of them was performed and the reception has been mixed. These dialogues rarely feature in the scholarship. This article argues that the dialogues deserve a more prominent place in Murdoch scholarship. They are not just a homage to Plato as well as her critical engagement with his understanding of art and religion, but also allow for a different, more intimate as well as more diverse, encounter with ideas.
