atinycupofpositivitea

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Chidi vs. Tahani: Intentions or Consequences?

Cool thing I’ve noticed on what is probably my 50th rewatch of The Good Place:

(I love ethics and I’m fascinated by The Good Place so this is gonna be a long one!)

One of the big questions ethicists and moral philosophers ask is intentions vs. consequences. Does the morality of an action depend on the consequences from it, the intentions behind it, or some combination of the two? Different schools of thought give different answers. So for example consequentialist theories, like utilitarianism, hold that the only thing that matters is the consequences of an action, how much good vs. bad they do in the world. Your intentions don’t matter, and could be selfish or corrupt so long as the action is a net good. For virtue ethics, intentions matter more because what makes an action ethical is how it develops your character and makes you a better person. So an action with negative consequences but good intentions is not necessarily unethical, but doing good with selfish motives is unethical.

The interesting thing I’ve noticed in The Good Place is how that question of intentions vs. actions is reflected in the characters, specifically Chidi vs. Tahani.

In season 1, we’re meant to think we really are in the Good Place, and that Chidi and Tahani are among the best people who ever lived. But early on we’re introduced to a tension in the logic of The Good Place: It doesn’t give a consistent answer to the question of intentions vs. consequences. 

Tahani is “British and condescending” but made it to the good place because she did a stunning amount of philanthropy. Meanwhile Chidi is a moral philosopher who spent his life trying to act ethically, but he’s a miserable mess as a result, he can’t do anything. Basically, Tahani is all actions with no good intentions, and Chidi is all good intentions and no action. And yet by the rules of the “Good Place” they both supposedly qualify. If Tahani qualifies on her actions alone, then how can Chidi qualify when he’s never done anything in his life? And if Chidi qualifies based on his good intentions, how can Tahani qualify when she never cared about the people she helped? It’s one of the many clever details that the show includes to hint from the very beginning that something isn’t right here.

Eventually we learn that the point system takes both intentions and consequences into account, and so in theory, the amount of good caused by someone’s actions could outweigh their negative intentions, and vice versa, and earn them enough points. That’s how we get Mindy St. Clair. And the conclusion the show comes to is one that many of us instinctively have, I think: both intentions and consequences matter, and the degree to which they matter is context-specific. Good intentions don’t erase the harm your actions cause, but intentionally causing harm is worse. And doing good in the world and materially helping people is important, but having selfish motives for doing so detracts from that. To be ethical, your actions must have good intentions behind them and good consequences from them. That’s a lesson our characters learn many times in many different ways. 

Chidi and Tahani start the show off as polar opposites, pure intention vs. pure action. And as the show progresses they each develop the other side. For Chidi, becoming a better person means becoming more decisive and active, rather than being paralyzed by indecision. He actually does things to try and make the world around him better. By the midpoint of Season 1 he’s already storming into Michael’s office, demanding Eleanor not be sent away. At the end of his journey, he readily walks through the Door, without needing to know what’s on the other side. For Tahani, becoming a better person means shedding her need for attention and validation, and actually caring about the people around her and the world she lives in. Her actions become less and less about herself and more and more about helping other people. And at the end of her journey, she decides to spend eternity doing just that, designing afterlife tests to help more people get into the Good Place.

Also Eleanor and Jason kind of parallel that, where Eleanor is pure negative intention and Jason is pure negative action. Eleanor is just a kind of shitty, selfish person for most of her life, but she doesn’t do much, her actions aren’t great but they aren’t terrible. As she puts it, she was “a medium person.” Jason is a sweet little dum-dum bird, he has a good heart, but he just… he does so many bad things lol. Either just for fun or because he needs money or because he and his friends are being dumbasses. 

They both start off with “low-grade crappiness” in different ways. Throughout the show, Eleanor becomes a less selfish person, and actively tries to do good instead of just retreating into her selfishness, to the point where she can’t move on from the afterlife until she knows all her friends are taken care of. Jason curbs his impulses and learns to slow down and actually think before acting, to the point where he can wander the eternal woods for a thousand Bearimys until Janet comes back (just like a monk!).

And these parallels are reflected in their relationships with each other too! Chidi teaches Eleanor to do the right thing instinctively, rather than the selfish thing. Eleanor teaches Chidi not to think so much, to let his feelings and intuition guide him, and to actually act. Jason gets Tahani out of her own head, teaches her not to think about herself and her image as much. Tahani teaches Jason to think about the impact of his actions on the other people in his life before just impulsively acting. Eleanor and Tahani help each other become less self-centered, with Eleanor teaching Tahani useful life skills and Tahani helping Eleanor connect with other people. Jason helps Chidi become less inhibited and Chidi teaches Jason some restraint and patience. They’re all “perfectly suited to make each other miserable” but it turns out they’re also perfectly suited to help each other become the best versions of themselves.

Anyway, The Good Place is such a well-crafted, clever show, and I love rewatching it and noticing all these details! 

[atinycupofpositivitea]

don’t forget to celebrate the small wins ☀️

[atinycupofpositivitea]

btw the thing she couldn’t ignore was someone calling her out for saying anti-depressants/hormone therapy are only perscribed by lazy doctors

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tumblr is great because no matter how many followers i get it doesn't stop me from being really fucking annoying. other places i will perhaps think before i post. Not here. not here

[atinycupofpositivitea]

Your body may change but your worth does not.

Digital illustration of a fat woman sitting. She’s wearing leggings and a tank top. There’s flowers and text that reads, ‘ your body may change, but your worth does not’

[atinycupofpositivitea]

for all the artists out there, here are my favorite resources i use to learn!

Files

The Complete Famous Artist Course

Art Books and Resources

Art, Anatomy, and Color Books

PDF Files of Art Books

YouTube

My YouTube Playlist of Tutorials

How to Draw Facial Features

Drawing and Art Advice

Drawing Lessons

Art Fundamentals

Anatomy of the Human Body

2D Animation

Perspective Drawing

Websites

Pinterest Board for Poses

Another Pinterest Board for Poses

Reference Angle

Figurosity

Sketch Daily

Human Anatomy

Animal Photo References

Humanae - Angélica Dass

Fine Art - Jimmy Nelson

Character Design References

CDR's Twitter Account

iamagco's Twitter Account

taco1704's Twitter Account

takuya_kakikata's Twitter Account

EtheringtonBro's Twitter Account

Drawabox

Color Wheel

Color Palette Cinema

Free Images and Pictures

Free Stock Photos

FILMGRAB

Screen Musings

William Nguyen Light Reference Tool

Animation References - sakugabooru

Animation References - Bodies in Motion

[atinycupofpositivitea]

Rest if you need to! Stay aware of what time it is. If you’re staying up late, it might be time to head to bed! A good night’s sleep is important to your mental and physical health. :)

Art by 1-newstart

[Image description] Summary: a campfire under a moonlit night sky. A painting of a grassy night-time landscape. There is a big, inviting, orange-red camp fire in the center of the image. The flames reach high up into the sky. Next to the fire there is a tree log, conveniently placed like a bench to sit on by the fire. There is also a tree stump, which a metal knight’s helmet rests atop. Behind it, a sword has been stabbed into the ground. The area around the fire is brightly lit; the grass is a lush green and looks soft. Outside the cone of light, it is dark but not scarily so. There are some trees, but the landscape is very open. The night sky is indigo, with grey-blue clouds. A big white full moon is visible between the clouds, in the top center of the painting. [End image description]

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Continue✨ Keep going✨

[atinycupofpositivitea]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[atinycupofpositivitea]

petition for tumblr to make the boop feature permanent. reasons:-

so i can shower my affection on mooties and followers without any limits

validates my sense of appreciation and does not make me feel unwanted

every introverts' dream who loves a blog but is scared to talk with them

feels like an actual physical boop

online love language

[atinycupofpositivitea]

via @indiarosecrawford

𝑓ₒᵣ ⲕᵢ𝑛𝑔 ₐ𝑛𝑑 𝑐ₒ𝑡𝑡ₐ𝑔ₑ

[atinycupofpositivitea]

[atinycupofpositivitea]

Progress is still progress!

It doesn't matter if you hadn't done the things you were supposed to do. It doesn't matter that if you finished 1 thing out of 4 things. You don't have 3 more things to do, you have 1 less thing to complete.

It doesn't matter if you had relapsed after a day or 3 of productivity and healing into a spiral again. What matters is that you get back up and start again. Because now you're a bit stronger and more resilient than before.

It doesn't matter if all you did today was getting out of bed, eat and change your clothes while you did nothing else. Appreciate yourself and give yourself the credit you deserve for doing those small things.

It doesn't matter if the only thing you did today was to focus on existing and on yourself alone. Be proud of surviving till the end of the day because you made it through knowing that there was a possibility of you not making it.

Progress is still progress. It doesn't matter if you take small or big steps. You're taking a step and that's all that matters.

[atinycupofpositivitea]

I’m really happy to see that a lot of people are trying to be more positive ready for 2017! To help share the positive vibes I’ve made these stickers to fight against negativity! They’ll also be available on my redbubble to buy as real stickers!

Keep reading

[atinycupofpositivitea]

boops you

[atinycupofpositivitea]

[atinycupofpositivitea]

Boop!

Happy April booping everybody!!!