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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