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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