John Mcdowell - Virtue and Reason Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

John Mcdowell - Virtue and Reason - Essay Example McDowell’s notion of a virtuous agent depends on the â€Å"sensitivity† of the agent to see what a virtue requires (for instance, what constitutes prudence in a certain situation). This sensitivity arises in a virtuous agent when he or she is faced with the particular details of states of affairs. It is a perceptual awareness of the right reasons for acting in certain ways. Because such sensitivity amounts to getting things right, McDowell claims that this sensitivity is a form of knowledge, and since this sensitivity is a virtue, virtues extend directly from moral knowledge. As McDowell puts it, the reliable sensitivity constitutes knowledge and it is also a necessary condition for virtue. Accordingly, McDowell is claiming that knowledge is a necessary condition for virtues. But one can conceive of a person of who has moral knowledge, or virtues, but is unmotivated to act virtuously, which is a person that McDowell logically dismisses as impossible. However, it is a cl ear and intuitive possibility that simply because a person has moral knowledge, he or she is not necessarily motivated to act upon it. McDowell responds by claiming that a person who fails to act virtuously, even though he knew what amounted to virtue, failed to do so only by clouded judgment or a desire to do otherwise. This is the Aristotelian answer to the objection. However, what this response leads to is the rejection of virtue as anything more than sensitivity. Although McDowell has been claiming that virtue is more than sensitivity (it is also about acting upon the virtue), this reply to the objection of the unfocused, clouded desire implies that the failure to act is not due to the one’s lack of a thing that the virtuous person has. The virtuous person and the non-virtuous person have the same sensitivity to what virtue requires, so as a result, it cannot be the case that knowledge of what virtue requires is what separates the virtuous from the non-virtuous. Socrates overcomes this problem by claiming that the difference between a virtuous person and a non-virtuous person is ignorance. Unlike Aristotle, Socrates does not need to account for this objection with the existence of a desire or a clouded judgment, which is the approach McDowell takes as well. Instead, McDowell dismisses Socrates’ answer as extreme and favors instead the response given by Aristotle. A second premise inherent in McDowell’s â€Å"Virtue and Reason† is t

The Last Temptation of Christ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Last Temptation of Christ - Essay Example The plot of the movie revolves around the life of Jesus Christ, who moves through his life, fearful of the cross that he is destined to bear. He is given solace and encouragement by his friend and disciple, Judas Iscariot who finally betrays him at his own request. Jesus is constantly fearful and at one point in the movie, he terms fear to be the driving force of the actions that he performs or refuses to perform. Jesus’s social role is talked of in the movie, but as pointed out by the film critic Roger Ebert, the movie is more about the â€Å"inner struggle† that Christ goes through rather than his position as an individual in the society (Ebert). While on the cross, Jesus is tempted to accept the offer of the devil in the guise of a guardian angel. He relents, but the viewer later gets to know that the entire passage was a hallucination, a temptation that Christ is able to overcome as he dies on the cross for the sake of mankind. The social mores of this age are portr ayed accurately in the film. However, the director, Martin Scorsese deviates from the historical accuracies where it suits his artistic purpose. The Jesus that we see in the movie is in keeping with the tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Jesus. This can be seen as an attempt on the part of the director to cast Christ in the mould of a modernist hero who grapples with his own subjectivity. On a close analysis of the movie influences of characters from modernist fiction can be found. Even though one may be able to believe that the other characters are of Israeli origin, it is difficult to believe that of Willem Dafoe. The racial belonging of the other characters too is historically accurate and they infuse a sense of authenticity to the proceedings of the movie. The practice of stoning prostitutes that is depicted in the movie too is an accurate depiction of history. This practiced was consistent with the manner in which gender operated in ancient Rome (the Roman Empire). In these societies , there existed the hypocrisy of the practice of visiting prostitutes who were at the same time, vilified and cast in a bad light. Their occupation was frowned upon; however, as is seen from the number of clients that Mary Magdalene has in the scene where Jesus goes to visit her, their existence was known to everybody. Codes of sexuality in the movie are also accurately shown and Mary Magdalene is able to lead a normal family life only after she is married in a traditional manner to Jesus. One of the most controversial scenes of the movie is the one where Jesus and Mary Magdalene are making love. This, according to the social mores of the period in which this movie is set in, would be completely acceptable, since it is post-marital. This only heightens the level of the hypocrisy that is indulged in by the people of this society when they visit a prostitute. The social position of inferiority that was assigned to women is also obvious from such a depiction. This is again, a historica lly accurate description. The position of women in ancient Rome was not a very high or respectable one. This was especially true in the case of the classes of people who did not belong to the ruling classes. This is the class that Jesus belonged to and this is again obvious from the social customs that he believes in and practices throughout the movie. The historical accuracy that is maintained in these situations enables the viewer of this movie to identify with Christ as a human and not