Rebecca Starks

Training Session
 

The project of moral philosophy,
A. A. Long paraphrases MacIntyre
on Aristotle, is to teach us to be
what we essentially are, which must mean
we think we're something we're not, which is what
(man, dog) we've evolved to be. But how strange
to need that subtractive teaching, as if we've
gotten ahead of ourselves, as they say
of precocious children these days, not gifted
but needing a quick snap back on the leash
remedial—which means at its root healing
but carries overtones of punishment—
to rein us in to what's most difficult,
pulling imagination up by its roots.