Pursuing Virtue -- A Theoretical Study of Ethics

Author: (USA) Alasdair MacIntyre
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: In this book, MacIntyre starts from the moral chaos of modern society and conducts a comprehensive examination and reflection on Western moral concepts and the spirit of modernity as a whole. It is a work on the history of ethical thought, as well as a profound critique of the fundamental dynamics and assumptions of Western civilization. The strength and ambition of its arguments, along with its emphasis on the life of virtue, powerfully propelled the shift of contemporary ethics from meta-ethics to substantive ethics, making it not only a "turning point in the study of contemporary ethics" but also a focal point of intense debate in the intellectual world over the past three decades. MacIntyre argues that in the modern world defined by enlightenment, any effort to justify any moral claim on any grounds is doomed to fail. This leads to the vacuity of moral discourse and practice in the contemporary world: although the language and appearance of morality still exist, its substance no longer does. The only purpose of moral language is control. This book has inspired philosophical research on virtue, revitalized traditionalism and communitarianism, and sparked valuable controversies in the history of moral philosophy. After Virtue is worthy of attention from philosophers, historians, and anyone interested in moral philosophy and its history.