L4.2: Lottie's tutorial on personal identity (MacIntyre, Schechtman and McDowell)
Alisdair MacIntyre “An influential narrative theorist of this sort is Alisdair MacIntyre. One of his arguments stems from the iterative nature of reason explanation. Suppose I ask you what you were doing yesterday afternoon?” “I was playing football.” “And why were you playing football?” “I was practicising.” “Why?” “Because I want to be a professional footballer.” “I assume you also believe that by practising you at least raise the chances of becoming one? Equally, you might have answered my question by saying that you believe that by practising you might become a professional footballer and I could also have filled in the gap that this is something you want . Note the typical pairing of belief and desire that so often go to make an action explanation. Sometimes we cite beliefs and desires, sometimes just one or the other. Sometimes we cite a larger action (not a mental state) such as ‘I was practising to become a professional footballer.’ Indeed it has been argued that the most ba...
