Defenders of the Faith and Fitness

In this episode, James and Robby explore the connection between
the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, and more specifically his
book "After Virtue", and its connection with fitness.


In his book "After Virtue" MacIntyre asks us to imagine there was
some sort of catastrophe by which all of our scientific knowledge
came to be destroyed.


Eventually enlightened people try to restore that knowledge but
all they have are fragments of the past.


For example they know objects near the surface of the Earth fall
at 9.8m/s2 but they don’t know the why behind it (gravity)


MacIntyre argues that we are in exactly this situation with
regard to the language of morality these days.


In this situation what we call modern morality or ethics is
divorced from the original intention of morality where the idea
was to achieve the highest good one could in this life through
being virtuous.


How does this connect to fitness?


We're actually in a very similar situation with regard to fitness
knowledge currently.


All we have is fragments of "cardio", "strength", or "vegetables
contain fiber" without an overarching framework to unite all
those pieces.


Although in this case of fitness this overarching framework to
unite everything, namely evolutionary biology, does exist few
people recognize and follow through with the true implications of
it.


MacIntyre also argues that the way forward in this type of world
for morality is small monastic communities that are "defenders of
the faith" so to speak.


Similarly with fitness there are small enclaves of people who
fight for the "vitality" model of fitness and use evolutionary
biology to guide it.


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