Existentialism, in both its Continental and its Anglo-Saxon versions, is an attempt to solve the problem without really facing it: to solve it by attributing to the individual an empty, lonely freedom, a freedom, if he wishes, to 'fly in the face of the facts'. What it pictures is indeed the fearful solitude of the individual marooned upon a tiny island in the middle of a sea of scientific facts, and morality escaping from science only by a wild leap of the will. But our situation is not like this.

About This Quote

About Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch was a 20th-century British born british writer and philosopher. Dame Jean Iris Murdoch was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Freedom — The value of liberty, independence, and self-determination

More quotes by Iris Murdoch

Related Quotes