Browsing by Subject "MacIntyre, Alasdair"

Narrative view of person, suggested by MacIntyre and Ricoeur, represents a holistic and teleological perspective on moral personhood. It recognizes the historicity of human being that appears in the narratives that an individual tells about his or her life, and the ethical character connected to this historicity. Consciousness of staying the same in the past, in the present, and in the future implies that person can take moral responsibility of his or her actions in relation to the others. On the other hand, understanding human being as historical affects the ethical judgment: actions can never be judged separated from the motives of the agent and the prevailing circumstances. Balancing between teleology and deontology, contextuality and universality, the narrative perspective encourages to embrace the perspective of practical wisdom to ethical judgment. Both MacIntyre and Ricoeur content that moral rules are necessary to create a framework for what is right or wrong. However, in addition to rules, evaluation relates to the overall vision of good. Alasdair MacIntyre and Paul Ricoeur have different motivations to embrace the narrative approach on human being. MacIntyre thinks that the moral disorder reflected in emotivist tendency of the contemporary moral discussions results from rejecting the teleological view of ethics. Believing in the superiority of Aristotelian virtue ethics to provide a better basis for morality than the rational options presented by the Enlightenment authors, he builds his theory of narrative unity on concepts deriving from Aristotle: virtues, practices, traditions, and telos that expresses the aim of good life. Also Ricoeur’s view is teleological, appearing in his ethical aim of ”good life with and for others in just institutions,” despite that his starting point is different. On the one hand, based on his own analysis in Time and Narrative, Ricoeur thinks that narrative helps an individual understand himself both on historical and ethical level: in addition to collecting the separate events as a discordant concordance, narrative provides a place for ethical deliberation. On the other hand Ricoeur is aware of the ability of narratives to transform one’s character: encountering of narratives of religions, similarly as encountering narratives of others, affects person’s identity. From the perspective of theology, understanding human being as a narrative self encourages both to connect to one’s own tradition, and to take the others into account in their singularity. Connecting to one’s religious tradition, becoming conscious of one’s roots by encounter with the narratives of one’s religious tradition or others representing the same tradition may result in a positive, ethical transformation that makes one open up towards the others and to function for the sake of the others: either in one’s personal life or on the level of institution. To take the others into account in their singularity from theological point of view could mean acknowledging the varying life-situations of individuals, their motives and social circumstances, instead of judging persons by their actions based on predefined religious principles. Also, taking into account that the other does not necessarily share the same religious conviction, for example by undressing one’s speech from religious symbols and arguments while discussing common affairs, can be one way to respect the other as narrative self.