After VirtueHighly controversial when it was first published in 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue has since established itself as a landmark work in contemporary moral philosophy. In this book, MacIntyre sought to address a crisis in moral language that he traced back to a European Enlightenment that had made the formulation of moral principles increasingly difficult. In the search for a way out of this impasse, MacIntyre returns to an earlier strand of ethical thinking, that of Aristotle, who emphasised the importance of 'virtue' to the ethical life. More than thirty years after its original publication, After Virtue remains a work that is impossible to ignore for anyone interested in our understanding of ethics and morality today. |
Contents
Chapter 1 A Disquieting Suggestion | 1 |
Chapter 2 The Nature of Moral Disagreement Today and the Claims of Emotivism | 7 |
Social Content and Social Context | 27 |
Chapter 4 The Predecessor Culture and the Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality | 43 |
Chapter 5 Why the Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality had to Fail | 61 |
Chapter 6 Some Consequences of the Failure of the Enlightenment Project | 75 |
Chapter 7 Fact Explanation and Expertise | 93 |
Chapter 8 The Character of Generalizations in Social Science and their Lack of Predictive Power | 103 |
Chapter 12 Aristotles Account of the Virtues | 171 |
Chapter 13 Medieval Aspects and Occasions | 193 |
Chapter 14 The Nature of the Virtues | 211 |
Chapter 15 The Virtues the Unity of a Human Life and the Concept of a Tradition | 237 |
Chapter 16 From the Virtues to Virtue and After Virtue | 263 |
Changing Conceptions | 283 |
Nietzsche or Aristotle Trotsky and St Benedict | 297 |
Chapter 19 Postscript to the Second Edition | 307 |
Chapter 9 Nietzsche or Aristotle? | 127 |
Chapter 10 The Virtues in Heroic Societies | 141 |
Chapter 11 The Virtues at Athens | 153 |
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| 329 | |
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Common terms and phrases
achievement action aesthetic agent analytic philosophy analytical answer appear aquinas argued argument aristotelian aristotle aristotle’s become behavior beliefs bureaucratic central character characteristically characterized Christian claims concept conflict context courage course crucial culture defined distinction earlier eighteenth century embodied emotivism emotivist enquiry ethical evaluative expressions fact genuine Greek hence heroic society homeric human hume hume’s identified Iliad important incompatible individual intelligible Jane austen justice Kant Kant’s Kierkegaard kind lack least liberal marxism means medieval modern modes moore’s moral fiction moral judgments moral philosophy narrative nature Nicomachean Ethics nietzsche nietzschean notion nozick’s odysseus one’s particular Philoctetes philosophical Plato pleonexia political possess practice precisely predict presupposes principles question reason recognize rejection relationship requires rival rules scheme someone sophocles specific standpoint stoicism suggested teleological teleological character telos theory thesis tradition truth understand unity unpredictability utilitarianism vices virtues writings