"The Sovereignty of Good" n'Os filmes

It is some times said, either irritably or with certain satisfaction, that philosophy makes no progress. It is certainly true, and I think this is an abiding and not a regrettable characteristic of the discipline, that philosophy has in a sense to keep trying to return to the beginning: a thing which it is not at all easy to do. There is a two-way movement in philosophy, a movement towards the building of elaborate theories, and a move back again towards the consideration of simple and obvious facts.
Iris Murdoch, The Idea of Perfection; in The Sovereignty of Good; Routledge Classics, London, New York, 1970, p. 1.