By the way, somewhat related to this: I always *life is a story* was one of my biggest takeaways from *After Virtue.* I think his chapter calls it "the narrative unity of a life." When you talk about "a life worth living," I think it's closely related to "a story worth retelling.* Each person's story is unique, but is its uniqueness a good thing, worth being remembered by God and retold in eternity with a person there as its representative? Or is it ugly, regrettable, meaningless? That's the test.
The virtues, by this account, are the key quality that make a person's life worth retelling.
But the relationship to *telos* is complex, because in the biological analogy too an acorn and an oak, while thriving oaks can vary somewhat, the destination is pretty well defined. But for people, the variety is vast, even without sin and vice; the variety of *virtuous* lives is enormous. How does that fit with the concept of *tellos?* Is there a tension there?
The Baltimore Catechism famously (within Catholic circles) states that man’s end is “to know, love, and serve God.” We could of course build that outwards and note that that’s meant to overflow into loving other humans and caring for all of Creation. If you make the telos large enough and rich enough, you can get near-limitless unique stories from it and also have a shared human telos.
But as you noted, without any telos at all it’s hard to ground any account of meaning. In the end there’s no answer to the question, “but who cares, why does it matter?”
Yes, well said. I think this idea that the purpose of man is to love God and enjoy Him, and there is no other satisfaction for man, ultimately-- there are plenty of other this-worldly pleasures but they all disappoint or fade in the end unless they are taken up into the love of God-- and yet, that, at the same time, this single purpose leads into and promotes a vast variety of human experience and excellence, is one one that CS Lewis expresses particularly well.
*Telos* can seem incompatible with it, insofar as it suggests that there is only one right purpose or end of human life. There's a suspicion of conformism, of not doing Justice to human freedom and creativity. I don't really agree with that: *telos* isn't actually a straitjacket. But one person's idea of *telos* might be a straight jacket for someone else if it's heavy-handedly imposed.
Nice reminiscences. People who had the privilege of hearing MacIntyre firsthand will get rarer over time. Come to think of it, I was at Notre Dame when he was there, wasn't I? I wonder why I never took his class. D'oh!
That’s how I feel about Ralph McInerny. I could have taken a class with him! Why didn’t I?
You can feel a little better in that you would’ve had to declare a philosophy major. His classes were in demand; I was one of only two people in my class who got the privilege of taking *two* when most people had to vie for one. (The undergraduate advisor liked me and when they unexpectedly had two openings my junior year he gave me one. Still so grateful to you, Fred Freddoso.)
By the way, somewhat related to this: I always *life is a story* was one of my biggest takeaways from *After Virtue.* I think his chapter calls it "the narrative unity of a life." When you talk about "a life worth living," I think it's closely related to "a story worth retelling.* Each person's story is unique, but is its uniqueness a good thing, worth being remembered by God and retold in eternity with a person there as its representative? Or is it ugly, regrettable, meaningless? That's the test.
The virtues, by this account, are the key quality that make a person's life worth retelling.
But the relationship to *telos* is complex, because in the biological analogy too an acorn and an oak, while thriving oaks can vary somewhat, the destination is pretty well defined. But for people, the variety is vast, even without sin and vice; the variety of *virtuous* lives is enormous. How does that fit with the concept of *tellos?* Is there a tension there?
The Baltimore Catechism famously (within Catholic circles) states that man’s end is “to know, love, and serve God.” We could of course build that outwards and note that that’s meant to overflow into loving other humans and caring for all of Creation. If you make the telos large enough and rich enough, you can get near-limitless unique stories from it and also have a shared human telos.
But as you noted, without any telos at all it’s hard to ground any account of meaning. In the end there’s no answer to the question, “but who cares, why does it matter?”
Yes, well said. I think this idea that the purpose of man is to love God and enjoy Him, and there is no other satisfaction for man, ultimately-- there are plenty of other this-worldly pleasures but they all disappoint or fade in the end unless they are taken up into the love of God-- and yet, that, at the same time, this single purpose leads into and promotes a vast variety of human experience and excellence, is one one that CS Lewis expresses particularly well.
*Telos* can seem incompatible with it, insofar as it suggests that there is only one right purpose or end of human life. There's a suspicion of conformism, of not doing Justice to human freedom and creativity. I don't really agree with that: *telos* isn't actually a straitjacket. But one person's idea of *telos* might be a straight jacket for someone else if it's heavy-handedly imposed.
Nice reminiscences. People who had the privilege of hearing MacIntyre firsthand will get rarer over time. Come to think of it, I was at Notre Dame when he was there, wasn't I? I wonder why I never took his class. D'oh!
That’s how I feel about Ralph McInerny. I could have taken a class with him! Why didn’t I?
You can feel a little better in that you would’ve had to declare a philosophy major. His classes were in demand; I was one of only two people in my class who got the privilege of taking *two* when most people had to vie for one. (The undergraduate advisor liked me and when they unexpectedly had two openings my junior year he gave me one. Still so grateful to you, Fred Freddoso.)
Ah, that's right! Now that I think about it, I probably never had the option!