After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

Summary

After Virtue is a work of moral philosophy by Alasdair MacIntyre, first published in 1981, with later editions in 1984 and 2007. It begins with an unsettling thought experiment. Imagine that a catastrophe destroyed the natural sciences, and that later generations tried to rebuild them from surviving fragments: half-understood words, pieces of theories and instruments whose use had been forgotten. People would go on using scientific language, but without the context that once made it meaningful. MacIntyre suggests that the moral language of modern Western societies is in just such a state. He points to public arguments about war, abortion and justice, which seem to go on without end because each side argues from premises the other does not share. He calls the resulting outlook emotivism: the view, often held in practice even when denied in theory, that moral judgments are only expressions of preference. MacIntyre traces this situation to the failure of what he calls the Enlightenment project. Thinkers such as Hume, Kant and others tried to give morality a rational basis while rejecting the older idea, found in Aristotle, that human beings have a purpose or end (telos). Without that idea, he argues, the old moral rules lost their point, and Nietzsche was right to see that the project had failed. The second half of the book offers an alternative. MacIntyre retells the history of the virtues from Homer through Aristotle and the Middle Ages, and defines a virtue in three stages: as a quality that enables us to achieve goods internal to practices such as farming, chess, medicine or music; as part of the narrative unity of a whole human life; and as sustained within a living moral tradition. He concludes that the real choice is between Nietzsche and Aristotle, and argues for Aristotle. The book ends by comparing our time to the decline of the Roman Empire and calling for local communities in which the moral and intellectual life can be sustained, as Benedictine monasteries once did. After Virtue influenced philosophy, theology, political theory and professional ethics, and helped spark the modern revival of virtue ethics. Critics have questioned its reading of the Enlightenment and its gloomy view of modern society.

Plot or Argument

• A disquieting suggestion (ch. 1)

  The thought experiment of a lost science, applied to modern moral language.

• Emotivism and the Enlightenment project (ch. 2–9)

  Why modern moral debate cannot be settled, and why attempts to ground morality without a human telos failed.

• The tradition of the virtues (ch. 10–13)

  Heroic societies, Athens, Aristotle and the medieval synthesis.

• The nature of the virtues (ch. 14–15)

  Practices, the narrative unity of a human life, and tradition.

• Nietzsche or Aristotle (ch. 16–18)

  Justice, the modern self and the closing call for new forms of community.

Lessons

• Practices and their goods

  MacIntyre distinguishes goods internal to a practice, such as the skill of a good game of chess, from external goods like money or fame. The distinction helps explain why virtues such as honesty and courage matter in any shared activity.

  • What practice do you take part in, and what are its internal goods?
  • How can external rewards corrupt a practice?

• Life as a story

  MacIntyre argues that we understand our actions only as parts of a larger story, including the stories of families, communities and traditions we inherit.

  • How does knowing your story help you decide what to do?
  • Can a person choose a new story?

• Why moral arguments stall

  He suggests that public debates often fail because the parties draw on fragments of different moral traditions. Understanding this can make disagreement more honest.

  • Think of a current debate: what premises does each side assume?
  • Is MacIntyre too pessimistic about modern moral argument?

• For the Christian reader

  MacIntyre's later work joined Aristotle's ethics with the thought of Thomas Aquinas, and his closing image of St. Benedict has inspired Christian discussion of community. Read it with Philippians 4:8 and the Rule of St. Benedict.

  • Why might a philosopher look to a sixth-century monk as a model?
  • How do Christian virtues such as charity fit MacIntyre's account?

Context

By the 1970s most English-speaking moral philosophy focused on rules and consequences, following Kant or the utilitarians. Elizabeth Anscombe's 1958 essay 'Modern Moral Philosophy' had already urged a return to the virtues.

Composition

MacIntyre wrote After Virtue in the United States after two decades of work on the history of ethics. It was published by Duckworth in London and the University of Notre Dame Press in 1981, with a postscript added in 1984 and a new prologue in 2007.

Reception

The book became one of the most discussed works of moral philosophy of its century, central to the revival of virtue ethics and to communitarian criticism of liberalism, though MacIntyre rejected the communitarian label.

Comparisons

• The Nicomachean Ethics

  Aristotle's account of the virtues and the human good is the tradition MacIntyre seeks to restore.

• Summa Theologica

  Thomas Aquinas joined Aristotle's ethics to Christian theology, a synthesis MacIntyre embraced in his later books.

• Ideas Have Consequences

  Weaver's 1948 book also traced modern moral confusion to a philosophical wrong turn.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The 'disquieting suggestion' about a lost science in chapter 1.
• The definition of emotivism and why MacIntyre thinks our culture is emotivist.
• The three-stage account of a virtue: practice, narrative, tradition.
• The closing comparison with the fall of Rome.

Key terms and names

Virtue

An acquired quality of character that enables a person to achieve the goods of practices and of a whole life.

Telos

Greek for end or purpose; the goal of a human life in Aristotle's ethics.

Emotivism

The view that moral judgments merely express feelings or preferences.

Practice

A complex shared activity with its own standards of excellence and internal goods.

Tradition

An ongoing argument, carried across generations, about the goods that constitute a community.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What is MacIntyre's 'disquieting suggestion' at the start of the book?
2. Comprehension What does MacIntyre mean by emotivism?
3. Comprehension How does he define a practice?
4. Interpretation Why does MacIntyre think the Enlightenment project failed?
5. Interpretation Why does he frame the final choice as Nietzsche or Aristotle?
6. Big Question Can a society share a moral life without sharing a tradition?

Faith Connections

• Philippians 4:8 (Scripture)

  Paul's list of things worthy of thought, an early Christian call to cultivate virtue.

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II (Great Conversation)

  The treatise on the virtues that MacIntyre's later work draws on.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Modern moral language is a set of fragments from older traditions; only by recovering an Aristotelian account of the virtues, set in practices, narratives and traditions, can moral argument become rational again.

Rhetorical device: thought experiment. The imagined destruction and fragmentary rebuilding of the natural sciences.

Debate: Resolved: that modern moral disagreement can be settled without returning to a shared idea of the human good.

Memory Work

I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’

We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain MacIntyre's account of a virtue and test it against an example from your own life.

Comparison with The Nicomachean Ethics: Compare MacIntyre's account of the virtues with Aristotle's in the Nicomachean Ethics.

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Describe a practice you know well, name its internal goods, and explain which virtues it requires.

• Classroom

  Re-enact MacIntyre's 'disquieting suggestion': give groups fragments of a lost science and ask them to rebuild it, then discuss the parallel with moral language.

• Essay

  Explain what MacIntyre means by calling for 'another St. Benedict' and argue whether the image fits our time.

Further Reading

• Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle

• Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, Alasdair MacIntyre

  The 1988 sequel.

• Dependent Rational Animals, Alasdair MacIntyre