Reading Journals

4th Reading Journal

McGinns argument has a serious tone masked with a humorous undertone. Much of
McGinns writing has some jokes here and there about virtue and the human face. However, he
backs up his claims and provides logical thinking to his argument. Defining virtue as four
different subclasses was too short of a thing. Defining something so complex in human society
into four things might make it easier to understand it, but it fails to encompasses everything that
is all of virtue. I agree with his idea that a person must take the time and decide what kind of
person they want to be. Then they take time to develop that and become the person they want to
be. People are constantly changing. Change might be the only thing that is constant in the human
experience. Thus, people are ever changing and developing into the person that they may or may
not want to be. If they realize what kind of person they want to be and are actively changing into
that person they become virtuous by internalizing the big four virtues that McGinn. When people
dont see what they are becoming and are not actively trying to change into the four virtues, they
develop a vice. This duality of vice and virtue is where I have a problem with his four virtues.
Humans are so complex that there never really is a black and white kind of thing. Topics and
ideas can be somewhat broken down into black and white, but it fails to hold all that is the
human experience. People mostly say, that at most, there is only a gray area of it. We may be
limited in our senses and our brain functioning to truly grasp such a thing. It might be staring us
right in the face and we fail to see it.
The duality of good is good and bad is bad (McGinn 96) and the simplicity of it
disregards moments when a person that is good commits a bad thing. I dont believe that a
person that does a bad becomes a bad person. There is so much more to the person. Its like
saying that a child stole a pencil and now is bad for the rest of their lives because they chose to

do a bad thing in that moment. That moment of lapse in judgment does not decide how the child
will act in the future. It might suggest that they will have another lapse in judgment, but it does
not mean that they will live the rest of their life doing bad things. He writing suggested that it
was humor, but writing about how people have that kind of mentality has a enlightment effect on
the people who think of such things. On the other hand, doing good while being bad might make
the person do good in the future, but it does not make the person be good for the rest of their life.
When making the choice of being good or being bad, a person make the choice of
changing who they are and are becoming virtuous or developing a vice. Overall, I agree with
McGinns idea of being able to develop the virtues, but I fail to agree that there is a duality of it,
even if he was only being humorous about it. Humans are much more complex and we are only
limited by our bodies and as such there is much more to the word of being virtuous.

8th Reading Journal

The way that this reading was formated made it a bit difficult to find out what the author
was trying to argue. It gave an account of what happened in San Francisco and the counterculture
in the Haight-Ashbury district. It was showing how difficult it was for younger people to live
during that time and how the adults were worried about the younger generation. It was arguing
that the world is not what it appeared. That the world was beginning to change and it would
continue to change. The way the essay wrote from experience to experience from the authors
perspective gives the reading a more personal feeling. It offers a deeper connection to the
experiences that the author had while in San Francisco. If the essay was written in a form that
only stated facts and removed the personality from the story, I would have read the argument
differently.

I think that the essay admires Deadeye Max and the other diggers. It admires the friends
that the author has made throughout the authors time in San Francisco. The author admires the
children that would leave everything behind and go to San Francisco. It seems to question how
the children would leave and come to a place that had rape and so much other things going down
with younger people. Each person had their own story and their own trips that they went on.
People came and went and that was the norm during those times. The people wanted to live free
of all things that is capitalist society that they had grown up in it. The author probably did not
understand why hippie culture would place the children in danger. Deadeye Max was a leader
that the author looked up to. Deadeye tried to help people to get off the drugs and help them
transition back to society. Deadeyes actions towards helping others was what probably made the
author admire what Deadeye was doing during those times.
The pain that the children faced when leaving their entire lives and running away and
facing the problems that it comes with it is what troubled the author the most. There were stories
of girls being pumped up with drugs and being raped by countless guys. Then there was the child
of her friend that was given drugs. The children were being abused by other people that were
trying to make money such as dealing drugs and other things. There was countless abuse and
people coming and going. It was a way of life that seemed to hurt the people that were the most
vulnerable, but they chose to live it. They believed that life had given them the short end of the
stick and they chose to fightback. To create their own lives and see what other places they could
go to. The author probably went through a troubling time and faced things the author might
classify as not well not well. However, the author gained the view of those who had been hurt
and those trying to help.

12th Reading Journal

People tend to believe that their beliefs are true no matter what and take them as fact
because they had experienced it in their lives. There are many ideas people use to rationalize
their own ideology and sometimes it is very difficult for them to contest their ideas. When people
start to doubt their own ideology do they begin to rethink their own beliefs and could change
depending on how far they decide to go into their own thinking. This change in thinking allows
for adaptation of the sel and leads to a deeper understanding of oneself.
Most beliefs are questioned when one gains a new experience in their life. They might
see something that doesnt agree with their ideology or they experience something that they
never have experienced before. Once this new experience is processed and not dismissed by the
person as being something that occurred randomly or is just an exception to the rule, do they
begin to understand that the reality is something much different than what they had believed
reality was. Most people dont want to question what they believe might be wrong, because once
they do they feel vulnerable or lost because of it. People dont like to feel vulnerable as adults
because they usually think that they know everything and they try to avoid feeling vulnerable.
People will fall into various categories when they try to avoid what they think is wrong and
conflicts with their beliefs. There are some that believe that their ideology is a world truth or fact
and not just the subjective beliefs of a person, there are those that believe that they have achieved
perfection and that there is no need to change what they believe is fact, and there are those that
believe that themselves or their group is in the right and everyone else in the wrong. People fall
back on these ideas once they have a hint of doubt in their beliefs. They try to be in the right
whenever they can and not question if their beliefs have been in the wrong.
Take for example the first calling card. A black person made cards for when people make
racial remarks that they hear. They assume that people dont make racist remarks when black

people are not around, but when they do the person hands out the card. People tend to think that
some of their words based on their beliefs dont hurt other people, but in most cases they do. As
the case with the calling card, the person receiving the card made a racial remark and it off put
the person handing out the card. The person receiving the card had their beliefs questioned once
they received the car because what they believed to be a joke to them was offending to other
people. The beliefs of the person handing out the card was also questioned because they want to
assume that people will not make racial remarks when a person of the race they are making fun
of isnt around, but people do and the person handing out the cards is bringing to light the idea of
questioning peoples ideology.