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.

Top 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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