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Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays
Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the most creative and important philosophers working today. This volume presents a selection of his classic essays on ethics and politics collected together for the first time, focussing particularly on the themes of moral disagreement, moral dilemmas, and truthfulness and its importance. The essays range widely in scope, from Aristotle and Aquinas and what we need to learn from them, to our contemporary economic and social structures and the threat which they pose to the realization of the forms of ethical life. They will appeal to a wide range of readers across philosophy and especially in moral philosophy, political philosophy, and theology.
252 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2006
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About the author
Alasdair MacIntyre
77 books516 followersAlasdair 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.
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November 11, 2023
Sorry for the somewhat personal and idiosyncratic review.
Not my favourite collection of articles by MacIntyre, much less indispensable than the first volume in my opinion, for example. Of course it still contains gems and some amount of greatness.
The first part, "Learning from Aristotle and Aquinas" contains the first four papers of the book. MacIntyre is always great as a historian and the first three papers deliver in that regard. Very informative, precise, critical and analytical, on Renaissance, Modern and Thomistic receptions of Aristotle. However, the fourth and only previously unpublished paper of the book might be the worst text I have read of MacIntyre - which, admittedly, is not saying a lot. I see it as a very abstract treatment - in the bad sense of the term - of very serious and concrete matters (on rational disagreement and abortion) and I think it muddies the water regarding those issues rather than illuminating them. It also appears to me as one of the most dogmatically thomistic of his works.
The next three papers, forming the second part of the book, "Ethics", are what I've read of MacIntyre that indeed most resemble a contribution to contemporary ethical philosophy. For this very reason, I tend to find them less helpful and less interesting, as my love for MacIntyre really stemmed from my disdain for contemporary ethical philosophy. I mean that I tend to find contemporary ethics to be in fact more obfuscating than illuminating, and here more than elsewhere MacIntyre "plays ball" and enters the obfuscating arena.
The third part regards "The politics of Ethics", a subject in which I think MacIntyre usually shines, and here lies a lot of good stuff, though nothing particularly new or more compelling than can be found elsewhere. The piece on Years might be the most intriguing, as I have indeed read too little of what MacIntyre has to say about arts, but it has always been greatly interesting.
Not my favourite collection of articles by MacIntyre, much less indispensable than the first volume in my opinion, for example. Of course it still contains gems and some amount of greatness.
The first part, "Learning from Aristotle and Aquinas" contains the first four papers of the book. MacIntyre is always great as a historian and the first three papers deliver in that regard. Very informative, precise, critical and analytical, on Renaissance, Modern and Thomistic receptions of Aristotle. However, the fourth and only previously unpublished paper of the book might be the worst text I have read of MacIntyre - which, admittedly, is not saying a lot. I see it as a very abstract treatment - in the bad sense of the term - of very serious and concrete matters (on rational disagreement and abortion) and I think it muddies the water regarding those issues rather than illuminating them. It also appears to me as one of the most dogmatically thomistic of his works.
The next three papers, forming the second part of the book, "Ethics", are what I've read of MacIntyre that indeed most resemble a contribution to contemporary ethical philosophy. For this very reason, I tend to find them less helpful and less interesting, as my love for MacIntyre really stemmed from my disdain for contemporary ethical philosophy. I mean that I tend to find contemporary ethics to be in fact more obfuscating than illuminating, and here more than elsewhere MacIntyre "plays ball" and enters the obfuscating arena.
The third part regards "The politics of Ethics", a subject in which I think MacIntyre usually shines, and here lies a lot of good stuff, though nothing particularly new or more compelling than can be found elsewhere. The piece on Years might be the most intriguing, as I have indeed read too little of what MacIntyre has to say about arts, but it has always been greatly interesting.
Displaying 1 of 1 review