1. W.H. Auden, ‘Shorts II’Epistle to a Godson and Other Poems(NY: Random House, 1972), 47.
2. Iris Murdoch,Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals(NY: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1992), 215. HereafterMGM.
3. Realism and Imagination in Ethics(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983); hereafterRIE.Lovibond's account of Murdoch is concentrated in §§43–45 with helpful context appearing in §§41–42, §§20–27 and §§1–3. Lovibond discusses Murdoch only in passing in her more recent work, but her remarks suggest that she stands by the essentials of her earlier assessment. SeeEthical Formation(2002): 9; ‘Virtue, Nature, and Providence’ in Gill (2005): 111.
4. ‘When She Was Good,’New Republic, December 31, 2001: 32.
5. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970; reprinted (with new pagination) London: Routledge Classics, 2001.