Section
10
The
Office and Philosophy
In
the first installment of The Office and
Philosophy we talked about Michael’s lack of empathy and his ignorance. Also,
we talked about Pam and Jim’s flirtation relationship, and the effects of their
relationship in the office. In the second installment, we will be further discussing
the philosophy of moral from the essay “Getting to Know Yourself: Some Species
of Moral Failure.”
Moral
Philosophy is concerned with the nature of right and wrong, good and evil, and
with our capacity to engage in one sort of action than another. This being the underlying
premise of the television show The Office. The essay breaks down moral
philosophy into three categories: ignorance, malicious, and akrasia. The essay
also shows how the characters show these traits of moral.
The
first trait is ignorance. We might fall under this by not knowing the right
thing to do, maybe because we don’t have all the information or we don’t know
the correct moral principles. Pam from the episode “Christmas Party” is
ignorant to the fact that Jim had given her a gift not only of their personal
jokes, but a card explaining his feelings for her. However, in the episode,
Michael bought an iPod with his big Christmas bonus he received for firing an
employee. He further got upset that no one else bought him a gift as expensive
as he bought for Ryan. Michael then turned secret Santa into “Yankee Swap.”
This is where Pam unknowingly traded Jim’s personal gift for Michaels iPod.
However, later in the episode she realized that the teapot was a special gift
and traded the iPod to another employee which shows that knowledge helps change
an outcome or situation dramatically.
The
second trait is maliciousness. We discussed this trait briefly in my first
installment, but I wanted to go into further detail about some of the actions
of the employees of Dunder Mifflin. In the essay, it reflects to certain
philosophers and that they presume that some people are just plain malicious. I
gave the example in installment one about Creed, who throughout the series
represents a complete malicious person. Some of these actions are: stealing a
pint of blood out of a blood drive, selling the company’s computers when
everyone thought Dunder Mifflin Scranton was being closed, stealing the lost
and found, and harassing female employee’s clothes. On the other hand, another
malicious personality on the show is Andy. He briefly showed his self interest
in the episode “Traveling Salesman”. He talked down on another employee,
Michaels assistant Dwight. This shows that people can be spiteful all of the
time or when it is for their self-interest.
The
third and last trait is akrasia. Akrasia is when one’s desires overpower one’s
rational decision making. A perfect
example of Akrasia is Jan Lebanson-Gold, a former employee of Dunder Mifflin and
Michaels former lover. Throughout their crazy lover affair Jan says several
times that Michael is completely wrong for her and lowered her standards by
dating him, yet contradicts this by saying she’s physically attracted to him. However,
their relationship gets worse when she sues the company for firing her and has Michael
testify against the company. Did I also mention that Jan is
Michaels direct superior? So, their sham of a relationship, Pam giving away
what could have changed her life forever, and Andy throwing another employing
under the bus to gain friendship with Michael are just a few ways the employees
of Dunder Mifflin Scranton show moral failure. It really opens your eyes to see
how easy it is to fall under this type of philosophy and lifestyle.
First comment: on the Walking Dead and Philosophy
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting subject Physical-ism. I have often thought about it myself, and how our minds and thoughts are not a physical part of us since they are invisible therefore maybe thought as not a basic need that we need to survive.
Second comment: on Dexter and Philosophy
DeleteI've only seen the first two seasons of Dexter and i would say that Dexter was in fact nurtured to kill. It probably strained from the scene he witnessed as a child when his family member was killed.