MacIntyre's Moral Agency and Social Structures

A brief lecture on an essay by Alasdair MacIntyre. Social structures today threaten moral agency. MacIntyre provides keys for understanding how to exercise agency. The lecture provides examples from Harry Potter and contemporary politics.

[ayveewilson]

Hi Jeff,

I'm completely new to this ("What, morals?" -self burn), so I apologise if I have the wrong idea.

Are you and MacIntyre saying that there is no [real] free will?

For example, what if I am a fifth generation Trolley operator? But I don't want to be. As a child, my father invested in my future by sending me to the top Trolley Schools in Europe, damn near sent the family broke, but he did it anyway. All because he had decided that I would be a trolley operator. And yet despite being inducted at a young age, along with ignoring my father and grandfather's classic Trolley banter, I exercised my own free will and said "No. No, I will not be a trolley operator."

But once I lost my job at the university (their humanities dept became an Amazon Prime eMarketing course or something), I soon realised that the bills weren't going to pay themselves. At this point, I am middle aged with not a lot of career options. I have actively lived my life to ensure that I never saw the inside of trolley. But now I am at a crossroads.

Is my moral agency the lesser for having taken the trolley job? I understand that I'm buying into the whole 'One or the other' argument, and clearly I should not have had children or bought a house in the first place, given that my financial situation was constantly in flux. But the market used to be okay, and condoms break; stuff happens.

So now I am a Trolley operator. I don't want to be, but I have actively made the choice to feed and house my family. But I still have Free Will, right?


(Pardon the comment vomit :))

[sinirfox]

So when a member of the public tells a police officer to take off his badge ... the officer has been acting without moral agency.