Macintyre: Humans Are Animals

All life seems to pursue two basic things, survival and perpetuation of the species. I assert that all decisions made in life are in some way linked basally to either survival or the continued evolution of the species. Aristotle would say humans are political animals. MacIntyre would say humans are storytelling animals. Noddings would say humans are caring animals. I would say humans are simply animals. Each of the aforementioned noted philosophers used notions present in their respective times, mechanics of their society, to lead to the specific conclusion. In order to identify the true conclusion as to what drives humans, I feel we need to disregard any observations that may be time dependent. If we do this, the only characterizing drive …show more content…
If I make decisions consistently that place me in the gluttonous end of the hunger mode (like stockpiling food when food is scarce), my safety may trend towards an unsafe due to perhaps another human starving and pushed to possibly extreme measures in my presence (for the sake of their family or immediate survival). The safest path, or most successful, would be found in balancing all modes as close as possible to the mean (the center). The centroid for each mode would not be the same for each person. Using hunger again as an example. It has been suspected that humans have weight set points (a natural weight that the complex systems of the human physiology aim for). These set points drift throughout life and circumstances and are not necessarily the same from human to human. Past decisions may also influence a perceived midpoint for a mode as well as current social settings. This makes for a very complicated game of chasing the rabbit and I can see why thinking philosophically about a present moral and ethical system is more attractive than trying to find a basis. If I disregard the present and attempt to stay timeless, I would say humans are neither good nor bad, we spend our lives chasing a moving point structure (the means of the modes). That structure of midpoints is constantly changing, and our survival and evolution depends on the attainment of the middle way and how long we can stay in the middle way. Social moral reciprocation sure makes this easier which is why it is the way we evolved. We all provide and take what we can, but also we ensure others attain enough to build and maintain these vital reciprocal