After Virtue
Also known as After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 argument that modern morality has lost its coherence.
At a glance
Key ideas
Moral fragments, The Polynesian taboos, Nietzsche or Aristotle? …
See all 4Criticism
George Scialabba, William E. Connolly, Anthony Ellis
See all 3Connections
Alasdair MacIntyre, A Theory of Justice and Anarchy, State, and Utopia
See all 3
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- MacIntyre imagines a world where science has been destroyed and rebuilt from fragments, and argues that modern moral language is in the same state.
- Ethics lost its content when the Enlightenment dropped Aristotle's idea of a human purpose.
- The result is emotivism, which he thinks accurately describes modern morality.
- He ends by posing the choice "Nietzsche or Aristotle?" and arguing for a revived Aristotelian tradition.
Why it matters
- It is among the most important texts in the 20th-century revival of virtue ethics.
Key facts
- Author
- Alasdair MacIntyre1
- Published
- 19811
- Later editions
- 1984, with a postscript replying to critics; 2007, with a new prologue1
Key ideas
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Moral fragments1
We use moral words whose original context is lost.
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The Polynesian taboos1
Taboos abandoned easily once their meaning was gone, like modern moral rules.
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Nietzsche or Aristotle?1
Only the Aristotelian tradition can answer Nietzsche.
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Waiting for Benedict1
We wait "not for Godot but for Benedict of Nursia".
Criticism
Connections
Links
Sources
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