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Full Idea
I can only answer the question 'What am I to do?' if I can answer the prior question 'Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?'.
Gist of Idea
I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story
Source
Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory [1981], p.201), quoted by Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the right thing to do? 09
Book Ref
Sandel,Michael J.: 'Justice: what's the right thing to do?' [Penguin 2010], p.221
A Reaction
MacIntyre is a great champion of the narrative view of the Self. Does this mean that if you had total amnesia, but retained other faculties, you could make no decisions? Can you start a new story whenever you like?
| 4006 | I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C] |
| 21050 | I can only make decisions if I see myself as part of a story [MacIntyre] |
| 7381 | We tell stories about ourselves, to protect, control and define who we are [Dennett] |
| 7382 | We spin narratives about ourselves, and the audience posits a centre of gravity for them [Dennett] |
| 5353 | The self is an abstraction which magnifies important aspects of autobiography [Flanagan] |
| 5354 | We are not born with a self; we develop a self through living [Flanagan] |