This paper explores how the philosophy of Iris Murdoch can contribute to pedagogy.
Firstly, the paper discusses some aspects of pedagogy which appears to have been marginalized within the field, but which may still be of great importance to how we understand educational situations.
Secondly, the paper turns to Iris Murdoch and some of her writings on art and literature in order to construct an understanding of the experience of reading. Through the concept of beauty reading is understood as a comforting intimation of some profound insights through the experience of unity. Through the sublime it is understood as a distressing collapse of knowledge through the experience of formlessness and plurality. The paper discusses how the reading experience can be taken to present an image of human relations in the cross section between self and world which holds the possibility of enlarged perspectives and that is the site for its pedagogical relevance.