eShop USA > Books > After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Second Edition
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Second Edition
List Price: $23.00Price: $14.75 You Save: $8.25 (36%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 170.42
EAN: 9780268006112
Edition: 2nd
ISBN: 0268006113
Label: University of Notre Dame Press
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: August 30, 1984
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Studio: University of Notre Dame Press
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
Morality, according to Alasdair MacIntyre, is not what it used to be. In the Aristotelian tradition of ancient Greece and medieval Europe, morality enabled the transformation from untutored human nature as it happened to be to human nature as it could be if it realized its telos (fundamental goal). Eventually, belief in Aristotelian teleology waned, leaving the idea of imperfect human nature in conflict with the perfectionist aims of morality. The conflict dooms to failure any attempt to justify the claims of morality, whether based on emotion, such as Hume's was, or on reason, as in the case of Kant. The result is that moral discourse and practice in the contemporary world is hollow: although the language and appearance of morality remains, the substance is no longer there. Disagreements on moral matters appeal to incommensurable values and so are interminable; the only use of moral language is manipulative.
The claims presented in After Virtue are certainly audacious, but the historical erudition and philosophical acuity behind MacIntyre's powerful critique of modern moral philosophy cannot be disregarded. Moreover, independently of its principal claims, the book, first published in 1981, helped to stimulate philosophical work on the virtues, to reinvigorate traditionalist and communitarian thought, and to provoke valuable discussion in the history of moral philosophy. It was so widely discussed that MacIntyre added another chapter to the second edition in order to reply to his critics. After Virtue continues to deserve attention from philosophers, historians, and anyone interested in moral philosophy and its history. --Glenn Branch
"[I]t is something to have a book, devoted to certain quite central technical philosophical questions, which is likely to produce so passionate a response." New York Review of Books
"A remarkable synthesis . . . ." Richard Rorty
"A stunning new study of ethics. . . ." Newsweek
"The best book of philosophy in years." John Gardner
"To call this a good book is to be patronizing; it is an important book, one that will have to be followed up or answered. It may be a great one, as are all turning points in a tide of drama whose protagonists have thought their courses inexorable." Choice, February 1982
When After Virtue first appeared in 1981, it was recognized at once as a significant and potentially controversial critique of contemporary moral philosophy. Now, in a new chapter, Alasdair MacIntyre responds to the questions and considerations raised by the many admirers and critics who made After Virtue such a widely read and discussed work of philosophy. Taking into account the dialogue generated by his book over the past three years, he elaborates his position on the relationship of philosophy to history, the virtues and the issue of relativism, and the relationship of moral philosophy to theology. In doing so, MacIntyre sustains the claims of his central conclusions to rational justification and demonstrates further the accountability of philosophy to the world and times it seeks to describe.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Slow and rather painful reading--which is too bad because it's an interesting theory
Albeit MacIntyre is among the worst writers to grace political philosophy shelves, he makes some interesting arguments following in the Anti-Enlightenment tradition of Burke and Devlin, notably, as well as others. Be prepared for slow, dense, often nearly nonsensically convoluted writing that is very hard to pick apart to understand what he's saying, but you will also gain valuable exposure to MacIntyre's really original, interesting arguments.
The Anti-Enlightenment school of thought ... Read More
Rating:  - Philosophy and History
MacIntyre's book is very clear and well written. Without for a moment slipping into the contemporary trap of "relativism" he explores how an understanding of context is necessary to understanding a philosophers work. This necessary link between history and philosophy forces an acceptance that the development of new philosophical ideas may indicate and/or cause the loss of certain societal characteristics. The title gives this away...
Rating:  - A feeble effort to justify feudal aristocracy
Continuing in the line of communitarian know-it-all savants like Karl Marx, who is better at describing a problem than solving it, MacIntyre displays a dazzling grasp of the short comings of the Western liberal tradition that brought us such things as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. However, once he tries to introduce his alternative, his "traditionalism project" quickly degenerates into logical absurdities and ridiculous posturing.
He should be embarrassed ... Read More
Rating: - A Must-Read Groundbreaking Treatise of Our Civilization's Thought
Alasdair MacIntyre effectively illustrates the greatest moral problems facing our culture today-- problems hundreds of years in the making and with roots beyond mere partisan debate. Written in relatively clear, necessarily precise philosophical language, one can easily understand MacIntyre's arguments and in so doing will understand why the western world has become what it is today and why it must change. Read it.
Rating: - a moral thriller
I read this book conflicted. On the one hand the book contained sentences, frequent sentences, of such numbing bodilessness as "For beside rights and utility, among the central moral fictions of the age we have to place the peculiarly managerial fiction embodied in the claim to possess systematic effectiveness in controlling certain aspects of social reality." On the other hand the book was so fascinating I could scarcely put it down at points. It felt like masochism.
All this to say: ... Read More
Related Categories:
|
