GUEVARA, Christine Mae D.

2JRN2

Among the three viewpoints of society and justice that were discussed, namely Plato’s
view on justice, Thomas Hobbes’s the Social Contract and Alasdair Macintyre’s view on basic
dependence, the kind of society that I most agree on is Macintyre’s. Alasdair Macintyre has a lot
of great points about the society that we live in today. He sees the people in the modern world as
slaves for the superficial and material things and were victims of global capitalism and
liberalism1, and people were stuck in the cycle of consumerism which is true and is still
happening as of today. I agree with this because people are so focused on the things that is here
on Earth, it is like they forcing themselves to eat the food that is served on their plates because
they are busy trying to fit in and do not even bother to think about the life after this.

Macintyre is against on this reality2 and although he sees a problem because of liberal
capitalist ideology, he understood the human being and sees them as not self-sufficient and
dependent to other people and since we are dependent, we must learn to give and since we
cannot survive alone, we need to learn to receive. And with this statement, I see that this is still
relevant because we have this somewhat unspoken rule in the society which is called the give
and take, wherein people have a mutual agreement about giving and receiving from one another.
And, there is also this notion of “no man is an island” that there is no person who can survive
alone because we need the help of each other. We learn and grow with other people; we improve
ourselves with the help of the people around us like family and friends. We must accept the fact
that we have the strengths but we also have certain weaknesses and to overcome them, we need
to learn to be dependent, however we have to be responsible and know our limitations.

And since I agree with Macintyre’s view on society and justice, I could say that this is my
ideal society. I want to live in the world where people do not just think about the things that will
benefit them and of what people think or see about them. I want people to accept that we need
each other to survive and I also hope that people will see that life is beyond the material things
that they own and they will not survive with selfishness.

1
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed September 26, 2019. https://www.iep.utm.edu/p-macint/#H11.
2
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed September 26, 2019. https://www.iep.utm.edu/p-macint/#H11.