Murdoch, Iris

The British author and philosopher Jean Iris Murdoch was of both English and Irish stock. She was born in Dublin to Protestant parents. Her father was a civil servant, and her mother was a promising opera singer before marrying. The family moved to England while Iris still was a child, and she grew up mainly in the western suburbs of London. After schooling in Bristol, she did university studies in Oxford in 1938-42. Her subjects were Latin, Greek, ancient history and philosophy. Already early on she became an atheist, and towards the end of the 30's, she was attracted to communist ideas. For some time in the 40's, she worked for the development aid organization of the UN and was then alternately stationed in London, Belgium and Austria. It was during this period that her interest in philosophy awakened in earnest. After leaving her position in 1946, she began studying the subject at Cambridge and then had Ludwig Wittgenstein as her teacher. In 1948, she herself became a teacher of philosophy at St. Anne's College in Oxford. She would then remain there until 1963. Later, she also taught at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1987, the queen gave her the right to call herself Dame Iris.