A Luminous Presence: Iris Murdoch
摘要
A case study of novelist/philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) is introduced in this chapter as an exemplar for bringing art, culture, and the neurosciences together. Her medical profile included the hearing loss that she initially noticed around age 35, as well as the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in her seventies. Studies of her brain degeneration after her death were correlated with the syntax in handwritten manuscripts she penned for her novels over the course of her career. Her health, cultural contributions, and biography emphasize the complexity of human experience. Her academic writings also aid in offering more perspective on the historical linkages among neuroscience, the arts, and neuroculture discussed in earlier chapters.