After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

by Alasdair MacIntyre

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2013

Overview

Highly 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.

Key Features

• Provides a landmark work in contemporary moral philosophy
• Address a crisis in moral language
• Emphasizes the importance of virtue to the ethical life

Contents

• A Disquieting Suggestion
• The Nature of Moral Disagreement Today and the Claims of Emotivism
• Emotivism: Social Content and Social Context
• The Predecessor Culture and the Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality
• Why the Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality had to Fail
• Some Consequences of the Failure of the Enlightenment Project
• ‘Fact’ , Explanation and Expertise
• The Character of Generalizations in Social Science and their Lack of Predictive Power
• Nietzsche or Aristotle?
• The Virtues in Heroic Societies
• The Virtues at Athens
• Aristotle’s Account of the Virtues
• Medieval Aspects and Occasions
• The Nature of the Virtues
• The Virtues, the Unity of a Human Life and the Concept of a Tradition
• From the Virtues to Virtue and After Virtue
• Justice as a Virtue: Changing Conceptions
• After Virtue: Nietzsche or Aristotle, Trotsky and St Benedict
• Postscript to the Second Edition

Product Details

• Title: After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
• Author: Alasdair MacIntyre
• Series: Bloomsbury Revelations
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Print Publication Date: 2013
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 333
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Ethics; Virtues; Virtue
• ISBNs: 9781780936253, 9781623569815, 9781623565251, 9780268204051, 1780936257, 1623569818, 1623565251, 0268204055
• Resource ID: LLS:FTERVIRTUE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:51:06Z

About Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (born 1929) is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics (CASEP) at London Metropolitan University, and an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.