The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays

by Alasdair MacIntyre

How should we respond when some of our basic beliefs are put into question? What makes a human body distinctively human? Why is truth an important good? These are among the questions explored in this collection of essays by Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the most creative and influential philosophers working today. Ten of MacIntyre's most influential essays written over almost thirty years are collected together here for the first time. They range over such topics as the issues raised by different types of relativism, what it is about human beings that cannot be understood by the natural sciences, the relationship between the ends of life and the ends of philosophical writing, and the relationship of moral philosophy to contemporary social practice. They will appeal to a wide range of readers across philosophy and especially in moral philosophy, political philosophy, and theology.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

216 pages, ebook

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre was a British-American philosopher who contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981) is one of the most important works of Anglophone moral and political philosophy in the 20th century. He was senior research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics (CASEP) at London Metropolitan University, emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and permanent senior distinguished research fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. During his lengthy academic career, he also taught at Brandeis University, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Boston University.

Reviews

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like some of the points he is making, in criticism of relativism and post modernism in views of Kuhn, and in questioning the presumed commitment to a lack of metaphysics in many other philosophers, and in the attempts to reintroduce teleological insights into philosophy, but I find it a bit infuriating and meandering to get to the point at times

[Andrew Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

second section a little plodding but made up for by first section