The Intentions of a Person

In After Virtue, the author states: “We cannot, that is to say, characterize behavior independently of intentions, and we cannot characterize intentions independently of the settings which make those intentions intelligible both to agents themselves and to others.”

As a child, adults are prone to say, “It is not about why you did it. It is about the fact that you did it.” It did not matter to them why we stole a toy, pushed another child, or lied to our teacher. It was simply the fact that we did it. I feel that this transfers into life now. People forget to look beyond themselves because, in reality, the human race is selfish. It is because of this fact that many people make assumptions or do not have any desire to hear the “full story.”

We forget that intentions make up everything that we do. Intentions make us who we are. We would never do anything unless we had some sort of intention behind it. However, people forget that everyone’s intentions are not the same. We forget that people do not think like us. We simply make the assumption that someone is an unfit parent, a slut, a homewrecker, etc.

The only way that we can continue to progress as humans is to realize that the world does not revolve around us (a harrowing task, I know). We have to be able to practice self awareness in order to achieve this. It is something that requires sociological mindfulness, and it is something that we have to practice everyday in order for things to change.