From the moment we abandoned Aristotle's teleology, MacIntyre believes, there has been no proper moral philosophy, but only philosophers "working ... with bits and pieces of philosophies which are detached from their original pre-Enlightenment settings in which they were comprehensible and useful." In other words we live in a world where philosophy is in a state of great confusion, whereas it was once rational and unified. So was, MacIntyre believes, the ancient Greek polis which was articulated according to Aristotle's tripartite scheme; ethics (third element) showed human-beings how to live a good life, that is to say how to pass from the state of man-as he-is (first element) to the state of man-as-he-should-be (second element). Such teleology was based on Aristotle's metaphysical assumptions upon the nature of human-beings, so when his metaphysics was discarded, his teleology was similarly put in question. The Enlightenment philosophers definitely rejected this notion of telos when trying to secularize bases for morality.
[...] best account that can be given of why some [ ] theories are superior to others presupposes the ability of constructing an intelligible dramatic narrative which can claim historical truth and in which such theories are the subjects of successive episodes”[10]. The construction of histories of this kind which can be rationally compared with each other allows rational comparison between traditions. Modern philosophy, on the contrary, has been built upon a rupture from the continuous narrative of pre-Enlightenment traditions. That is why, according to MacIntyre, conflicts between modern traditions can't be rationally settled. [...]
[...] In E. Craig Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved November from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/R045 T. Clayton, “Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre”, The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy D. Keating, Ethical Project of Alasdair MacIntyre : a disquieting solution”,www.anselmphilosophy.com S. Mulhall and A. Swift, Liberals and Communitarians, Blackwells T. Clayton, “Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre”, The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy THOMAS, ALAN (1998). MacIntyre, Alasdair. In E. Craig Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved November from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/R045 MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. Second Edition. [...]
[...] Then, how can MacIntyre honestly discredit modernity because of its conflicting nature whereas he accepts such a feature in Aristotelianism, Augustinism, and Thomism? Second, MacIntyre sees aspiration to universality as a modern pathology. However, how can he not notice that Thomism and Augustinism explicitly aim at universality? In the questio 94 of his Summa theologiae, Saint Thomas Aquinas clearly states that philosophy should aim at trespassing historical contingencies, in order to discern a set of norms that any rational being would obey. [...]
[...] One must not forget that the attempt of the Enlightenment to ground philosophy on more secularised basis was at that time felt to be a great relief by many philosophers, and in no respect was it considered as a sharp rupture from the past, but rather as a positive evolution. MacIntyre's account of such a supposed rupture is open to many criticisms that are, for many of them, perfectly consistent and coherent. Nonetheless, MacIntyre's project is worth taking into account, as it raises several interesting points. [...]
[...] Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press (1981) in T. Clayton, “Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre”, The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy T. Clayton, ibid. MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue in T. Clayton, ibid. Jennifer A. Herdt, Alasdair MacIntyre's "Rationality of Traditions" and Tradition-Transcendental Standards of Justification, The Journal of Religion, Vol No (Oct., 1998), pp. 524- 546. Ibid MacIntyre, A., 'Epistemological Crises, Dramatic Narratives and the Philosophy of Science', The Monist (1977), 453-72. Ibid Ibid MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. Second Edition. [...]
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