I have been pushing this book, After Virtue, by contemporary moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre for sometime now. I just can't recommend it highly enough. If you are interested in the question of how morals are rationalized, and have been rationalized historically this book is for you. If you are interested in the question of the propriety tradition in a world which individual choice is prior to and stands over classical notions of authority and "accounting for taste" then this book is for you. Interested in how stories and narratives might be fundamental to our basic worldview?
It's not necessarily an easy read. You might have to follow some references to figure out all the nuts and bults of MacIntyre's arguments and illustrations, however it's a challenge well worth the pursuit.
De Gustibus non est disputandum translates into the more familiar phrase "there's no accounting for taste". MacIntyre's thrust is, on the contrary, there is within reason.
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5 comments:
I do agree that it's an excellent book but I believe it's also a difficult book to read well. It helps to have a background in Aristotelian Virtue Ethics or, at the very least, to have read Nicomachean Ethics.
I like it but I, also, fear it falls prey to the problem of many continental philosophers: It's more than willing to theorize and speculate but shows insufficient analysis to limit and dissect the views as well. I guess I'm calling for a more critical eye within the argument.
Sounds like a great book to add to my wish list.
I'm only familiar with McIntyre within theological criticism...I think I'm in love with your blog/profile.
MacIntyre is an incredibly dense thinker, but also a critically penetrating one. 3 Rival Versions is where he most directly addresses the more prominent continental philosophers as well as the more ahistorical thinking associated most closely with analytic philosophy. His entire motivation is to draw the kind of synthetic compromise I can only assume you're in favor of.
For what it's worth, MacIntyre was literally the only professor in the Duke philosophy department circa 1999 capable of teaching any of the major continental philosophers. But the two others capable of matching him on a sheerly analytic level are the only two professors who turned out to be capable of teaching his work after he left.
After Virtue presupposes a lot of the work he did in A Short History of Ethics and prefigures a great deal of sharp analysis he does in later works.
After Virtue is the work that really put him on the map; his analyses are often abrupt in his most popularly appealing work, but that's not because he hasn't put the work into making sure they can carry all the weight he needs them to.
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