Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Savannah Hatch
Section 10
The Office and Philosophy
            In this first portion of my final project I will be discussing the main character of The Office, Mr. Michael Scott, and his cluelessness. The essay in The Office and Philosophy I will be referring to is “HERO: The Key to curing Michael’s cluelessness.” In this essay, it discusses two specific episodes entitled “Gay Witch Hunt” and “Diversity Day.” In these episodes, Michael, the manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper, is trying to express diversity in the workplace while accidently outing one of his employees of his secret sexual orientation. Over the course of the two episodes, Michael shows a lack of empathy while continuously using sexist and racial speech. To be frank, Michael shows lack of empathy throughout his employment of Dunder Mifflin. His sexual jokes and misconduct is a routine comedy act throughout the series. However, Michael is unaware of his lack of empathy and ignorance to these taboo work topics. Michael is completely ignorant to the fact that his employees are hurt by his racy and inappropriate comments, which the essay argues that Michael does not, like most psychopaths, possess the emotion empathy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWzezWq7FkA
            In this portion, I will discuss “Flirting in the Office: What Can Jim and Pam’s Romantic Antics Teach Us About Moral Philosophy.” This essay discusses Jim and Pam’s relationship before the two ever started dating (spoiler). Also, it mentions the taboo of relationships in the workplace, and the relationship between Pam and Jim while Pam is engaged to Roy. This leads to the discussion of the morale that is created when other employees see Pam and Jim flirting around the office. This could be particularly dangerous if Pam starts to show Jim favor by assigning him new clients, or Jim showing Pam favor by not evaluating her performance as harsh as other employees (Not to say that Pam is terrible at her job because she is a great receptionist). However, in the conclusion of the essay, it goes to say that none of these concerns mattered because the employees of Dunder Mifflin didn’t care about Jim and Pam’s flirty relationship.
            Lastly, I will discuss the essay “Getting to Know Yourself, Some Species of Moral Failure”. In the beginning the essay refers to Plato and his words about moral failure. On the Office, there are two employees who embody the definition of moral failure. These employees being Creed and Andy. Both lack motivation to perform their jobs adequately. Creed, the oldest employee of Dunder Mifflin- Scranton, is not only weird, but very creepy. He is the head of quality assurance of the paper, but you’ll never see him actually doing any work. On the other hand, Andy is from a well to do family and alumni of Cornell. He consecutively the worst salesman and produces the lowest number for the Scranton branch. He maliciously self-served himself when he bad mouths another salesman, Dwight, while trying to befriend Michael, the boss. The essay coined this action with the term akrasia, or when ones desires overpower ones rational decision-making, which is a reoccurring theme within the nine seasons of the series. 

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