Iris Murdoch on philosophy and literature. The interviewer is Brian McGee.
There’s a second part that comments on the first say is much better. Be good and you may get to see it. ;-)
I haven’t been able to watch all of it, but since I’m off for a while, I thought I’d put it and see the rest later. One thing I’m wondering about is how distinctly Wittgensteinian the conception of philosophy she articulates is. Do her descriptions fit analytic philosophy generally?
Feminist Philosophers 
This is great! I would have thought her descriptions fit analytic philosophy in general? But I might be wrong.
Iris needs a good hairstylist.
Brian needs to stop talking and let us hear more from Iris.
Seems to me if you are a philosopher, you better balance your life with fun things that don’t involve analysis. Sometimes clarity can not be had.
Monkey, thanks. I did think of her remarks about philosophy wanting to reveal, as opposed to conceal as invoking a Wittgensteinian view of philosophy as therapy. I do think a lot of contemporary philosophy rejects the Wittgensteinian idea that philosophical theorizing (esp about cognition) typically assumes an ontological systematicity where it does not exist.
Still, perhaps there is a way in which all non-fictive disciplines aim to reveal.
Lily, interesting ideas. Still, I suspect that getting her hair styled might have led to IM’s getting what I think of as the Martin Amis treatment. That is, the treatment he got when he returned to England with American-looking teeth. There were, I understand, unfavorable comments are giving into American narcissism.
The written exchange is somewhat revised over what’s said and the upshot is you get more from Murdoch, as Monkey requests. I wonder whether you ever had time, but I think it’s worth reading, and also fun. See here: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Existentialists_and_Mystics.html
Yes about Amis, and I’m a bit surprised to find hair a topic. But I’m very sympathetic to Lily’s: ‘if you are a philosopher, you better balance your life with fun things’.
That thought about the odd ways that philosophy and fun might interact is developed a bit in my own talk/paper/review remarks on Murdoch’s The Black Prince.