Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Breen, Keith

Titel

Alasdair MacIntyre and the Hope for a Politics of Virtuous Acknowledged Dependence

Ist Teil von

• Contemporary political theory, 2002-06, Vol.1 (2), p.181-201

Erscheinungsjahr

2002

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper seeks to evaluate the political dimensions to Alasdair MacIntyre's thought. It does so by examining his virtue ethics in light of the political vision set out in Dependent Rational Animals (1999) & elsewhere. Key to MacIntyre's project is a form of local community that challenges the modern market & nation-state. This challenge & its philosophical underpinnings situate him as a distinctive figure within contemporary democratic thought. Against his critics, a central claim is that MacIntyre does not fall foul either of a nostalgic antipluralism or an unreflective conservatism. In fact, his theory is amenable to the idea of a nonsubjectivist pluralism & displays a highly sophisticated understanding of the processes of change & critique. There are, however, significant problems that spring from MacIntyre's excessive hostility to modern liberal realities. A near totalizing critique, it threatens not only to undercut his Aristotelian philosophy of practice, but also leads him to an insupportable bifurcation of state & community. As regards the state, civil liberty, & distributive justice, MacIntyre can avoid self-contradiction & a despairing purism only if he takes a more moderate stance. 32 References. Adapted from the source document.