Morality Essay

In “The Essential Agrarian Reader,” Norman Wirzba claims that “it is only as we are faithful to the particularities and demands of place and accept responsibility for our actions in those places, that we can claim to be moral beings at all” ( Wirzba 95). Without recognizing the effects of our actions on a certain place we cannot consider ourselves moral individuals. In this paper, I will argue that this claim is correct because without a sense of accountability, a connection to morality cannot be made.
Morality is making the distinction between doing what is beneficial or doing what is detrimental. Everything in this world is connected and depends on a sense of morality. “We care for people, billions of organisms, and myriads of habitats they support, because we now appreciate that we draw our life from each other, and that we are all mutually implicated in each other’s fate” (Wirzba 88). Our lives are ultimately connected with the state and well-being of other individuals. We discern the fate of ourselves when we care about the fate of others. If we choose to disregard the needs of our settings, we are living immorally in regard to our surroundings and ourselves.
It is imperative to recognize our impact on our surroundings and their impact on us. Wirzba says “…these bodies, in turn, necessarily live through the bodies of others- wheat, rice, steer, fish, microorganisms, bees, chickens. We simply cannot avoid or override the ecological truth…” (Wirzba 86). Our lives depend on the resources around us. In order to flourish, we must take care of them, or we are not living ethically. When we take into consideration the needs of our surroundings, we are considering what we need ourselves because of our direct connection.
In “F...

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...must gather knowledge of what is right. If we want to know “If we want to know things we must first love them by attending to them and relinquishing our fears, desires, and self-serving agendas” (Wirzba 90).

I believe Wirzba’s claim to be very accurate. If we cannot learn from our actions and how they affect ourselves, others, and the places we inhabit, then we cannot entitle ourselves to be moral beings. We must strive to learn to appreciate everything around us and treat it respectfully. When we experience fruitful outcomes, we then gain knowledge of how to act as moral beings and perform actions that are ethical.

In conclusion, I have argued that without a sense of accountability a connection to morality cannot be made. Wirzba’s claim holds true, and we must take into account our actions and be respectful of the requirements of the places we encounter.