Macintyre whose justice which rationality

Recruits now joining the armed forces may have received no prior grounding in moral values. The chapter seeks to rebut both liberal doubts and moral scepticism. Keywords: difficult cases fallacy , liberalism , Alasdair MacIntyre , rationality of morality , relativism , scepticism , teaching ethics , values.

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To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us. All Rights Reserved. OSO version 0. University Press Scholarship Online. Sign in. Not registered? Sign up. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Jul 22, Manuel rated it really liked it. For it is only within a tradition its language, its methodologies, its standards of evaluation; in short, its rationality that theories can be understood.

However, this new foundationalist project was left incomplete. If a theory can only be understood and evaluated within its own tradition, and there are many traditions Greek, Medieval, Modern, etc. A tradition, therefore, can be judged as superior or inferior to another by its explanatory power or by the kind of progress it makes in solving its own internal problems.

If a tradition leaves too many things unsolved, if it generates too many inconsistencies, etc. Obviously, there are many more interesting and intriguing details involved, including implications for the philosophy of language; this is just a grossly condensed version of the main idea.

It can be found in chapters 1, 18, 19, and The rest of the book chapters 2 through 17 serves mostly to illustrate it by taking a look of how the concept of justice has been dealt with by 4 different traditions: Greek, Medieval, Scottish and Liberal.

Now, why would MacIntyre structure his book this way, i. Honestly, I think this was ill conceived. As it is, the reader is bound to get disoriented quickly after the first chapter, when history takes over the philosophical development of After Virtue. I also have to fault MacIntyre for the same deficiencies of his previous book, that is, his writing style.

It is dry as the Sahara desert and heavily academic to the point of tedium. Excessive use of the passive construction, of nominalizations, of weak verbs, all make reading very difficult. This is a shame, considering that the ideas are of enormous value, especially in the area of ethics, where a good many conflicting theories, subsumed under the heading of a tradition, can be reduced in number and judged more easily.

Were it not for the philosophical content, I would rate this book more poorly, but since the ideas are of such enormous consequence in my opinion , I will rate this 4 stars. Very recommended, but be very patient.

Jul 22, Jerome rated it really liked it Shelves: own. Written to address some of the criticism leveled against After Virtue , I think this book is the best of the "trilogy" including the follow-up, Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry. MacIntyre's comprehension of the historical development of the ground of ethical reasoning is astonishing, and his ability to write about this development in such a readable way is also quite a feat.

What makes MacIntyre really worth reading is that he is able to integrate or deflect a lot of the post-modern critiqu Written to address some of the criticism leveled against After Virtue , I think this book is the best of the "trilogy" including the follow-up, Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry. What makes MacIntyre really worth reading is that he is able to integrate or deflect a lot of the post-modern critique of traditional ethics while remaining essentially Aristotelian of the Thomistic variety.

Jun 20, William Randolph rated it really liked it Shelves: political-philosophy. A long and somewhat inconclusive book. Worth reading because it fleshes out what he says in After Virtue , and perhaps unintentionally hints at ways in which liberal democracy can be conceived of and appreciated as such a tradition. Apr 03, Asim Bakhshi rated it it was amazing Shelves: owned , philosophy. A tremendously influential work but a difficult read as compared to 'After Virtue'; probably because most of the readers including myself are not well familiar with all the moral, philosophical and cultural traditions referred in the book.

I loved the last part about Hume and the Chapter about resolving the conflict between traditions. Overall, an amazing read supplying lots of important questions. MacIntyre's history of ethical debate, and defense of Aristotelianism and Thomism.

It's marred by vague meandering writing, by his sneering attitude towards contemporary liberalism with no acknowledgement of the flaws of the systems that liberalism is a reaction to , and by his straw-man account of relativism. Nevertheless he has a good historical sense and may be worthwhile for anyone studying this particular historical train of ethical debate.

Dec 09, John Roberson rated it it was amazing. A splendid piece of intellectual history. MacIntyre unfolds several different rationalities at odds with one another, confronting modern society with the unrecognized depth of the disagreement between different "views. Apr 11, Bill rated it really liked it Recommends it for: all. Shelves: minerva-s-owl. Difficult concepts must be struggled with.

This is a book to keep re-reading and extracting the idea of justice. MacIntyre is definitely an idea maker to be wrestled with, a modern Thomasist and Aristotlean of great import to all our lives. Nov 21, Jonathan added it Shelves: philosophy. May 22, Richard rated it it was amazing. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one ». It too has its sources in Aristotle and Augustine and it finds one of its expressions in Hutcheson, who sees "perfect agreement between scripture, rightly understood, and the conclusions of reason concerning the system of nature, rightly understood" 26 l.

Hutcheson's system is an amalgam that proved to be inherently unstable. This third tradition is subverted by Hume, who believed himself to be giving an account of universal human nature and society when in fact he was merely providing a justification for the way of life of the eighteenth-century English land-owning class.

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