The Kestrel Passage

The kestrel passage is among the most famous moments in twentieth-century moral philosophy. In 'The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts,' Murdoch describes herself consumed by resentment — the inner narration of grievances, self-justifications, the ego's relentless narrative. She looks out the window and sees a kestrel hovering against the wind. For a moment, the brooding stops. The narrative collapses. There is only the bird, the wind, the precise adjustments of wing and tail that hold it motionless. The woman is, for that moment, freed from herself. The passage is the paradigm of what Murdoch calls unselfing, and it functions in her philosophy the way certain thought experiments function elsewhere — as a vivid case that organizes an entire theoretical framework.