Camden Philosophical Society: “The Sovereignty of the Good Over Other Concepts”

The May 19th session will, as usual, be a hybrid gathering from 3:30-5:30 pm eastern on the third Tuesday of the month. All are welcome to participate, in-person at the Picker Room of the Camden Public Library or by Zoom. That goes for visitors, as well as year-rounders in Maine, and friends of the society wherever you may be.

If you wish to join via Zoom, please email sewright772@gmail.com. You will receive a Zoom invitation on the day of the meeting. Click on the “Join Zoom Meeting” link in that invitation at the time of the event.

Our next reading will address meaning and the consciousness of the human species seen from the full complexity of our being and asks this: even if our “natural” energy system is turned inward, and our “cosmic panic” leads us to seek relief in isolation, attachment, diversion and sublimation; even if our “natural” self craves relief from a perceived “meaninglessness” is there not a position to take against those accounts that purport the inadequacy and hopelessness of human nature?  

In Iris Murdoch’s reading, “The Sovereignty of Good” she will explore this question of “how can we make ourselves good?” What does good look like and what part does beauty play in drawing ourself away from ourself? This is Murdoch’s “un-selfing” that pierces the veil of selfish  consciousness and reduces the “fat, relentless ego” allowing us to see more clearly the reality of our existence; it is a shift of consciousness away from our own selfish anxieties to the outside world. It is our imagination stimulated by both art and nature that enables this shift. 
As Murdoch says:

“On intellectual disciplines and in the enjoyment of art and nature we discover value in our ability to forget self, to be realistic, to perceive justly. We use our imagination not to escape the world but to join it, and this exhilarates us because of the distance between our ordinary dulled consciousness and an apprehension of the real.”

More introductory remarks will be provided on the 19th. In preparation for our discussion please read the attached entitled, “The Sovereignty of the Good Over Other Concepts”.  It is Chapter 3 of her larger work entitled, The Sovereignty of Good. Here is the online link, for Chapter 3, downloadable as a pdf if desired. https://eganphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Murdoch-The-Sovereignty-of-Good-Over-Other-Concepts.pdf