Week 5 blog
I felt like this week’s reading really put into perspective that humans can get lost in their everyday routines throughout their life. This reading made me question if it’s possible for us as humans to break out of the sequence of actions we partake in every day. Can we live a good life while breaking away from the social norm and expectation of regulating our lives and behaviors? MacIntyre states, “That particular actions derive their character as parts of larger wholes is a point of view alien to our dominant ways of thinking and yet one which it is necessary at least to consider if we are to begin to understand how a life may be more than a sequence of individual actions and episodes.” The end of this sentence really grabbed my attention because I realized how life is extremely individual. Yes, we are all living a life, but as humans we make those lives our own and we can get lost in the repetitions of our routines.
On page 296 MacIntyre gives an example of a man gardening and presents the question “what is he doing”. He then explains how this can be interpreted in different way and has a variety of answers such as “exercising” or “pleasing his wife” but these may not be correct because it depends on what the individuals’ original intentions were for starting the garden; and by doing so, he just so happens to be gaining exercise and pleasing his wife. I thought this was so interesting because such a simple question that would typically be answered with little thought can actually require deeper comprehension then we would normally expect. This example brought me back to Tuesdays opening question in class of why people find it so hard to come to an agreement on topics of morality and politics. I think his scenario is a perfect demonstration of why it’s nearly impossible for people to form an agreement. There are so many possible answers and outcomes to every topic, and people are extremely opinionated with individual views and values. I think it would be impossible for everyone to adopt this level of critical analysis to formulate a unanimous agreement on these topics.
