49 pages • 1 hour read
Alasdair MacIntyreAfter Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Alasdair MacIntyre
The moral and political philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre was born in 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied at the University of London, Manchester University, and the University of Oxford, majoring first in classics and then philosophy. Although his early philosophical interests leaned toward Marxism, MacIntyre became disillusioned by what he came to perceive as moral outrages perpetrated in Marxist regimes and, particularly, the inability of Marxists to rationally defend them. Published in the late 1950s, MacIntyre’s essay “Notes from the Moral Wilderness” represented his response to this dilemma, outlining a standpoint in which human good might be achieved in community with others rather than on an individualist basis.
Developing these ideas over the following decades, MacIntyre gave them a more complete statement in After Virtue (1981), to this day his most frequently read and discussed work. Drawing on his background in classics, MacIntyre argues in After Virtue that it is the ethical philosophy of Aristotle, rather than Marxism or liberal individualism, that provides a solution to modern moral problems. Macintyre’s body of work emphasizes the importance of history and narratives in the formation of philosophical and social beliefs and practices.
MacIntyre added to his advocacy of Aristotle a commitment to the social and moral thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. He eventually converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 1980s. In 1970 MacIntyre emigrated to the United States, where he has lived ever since, teaching philosophy at Boston, Vanderbilt, and Duke Universities and the University of Notre Dame.
After Virtue has remained an important philosophical text since its publication, and is still widely taught in university philosophy courses. MacIntyre remains an important figure in the late-20th-century revival of classical virtue ethics (See: Background).
Aristotle
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) is one of the principal figures in ancient Greek philosophy. His writings—only a fraction of which have survived—covered all branches of knowledge current in his time, from ethics and rhetoric to natural science. Aristotle’s views on happiness and morality are articulated in the Nichomachean Ethics, considered a foundational work of moral philosophy.
Using a philosophical approach that emphasizes empirical observation, Aristotle sees human life as a quest to cultivate moral character through the virtues, or moral habits. Each virtue is analyzed as a “golden mean” between two extremes. Aristotle’s ideas were incorporated into Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thought in the Middle Ages, and he had a profound influence on the philosophy, theology, and science of the Western world.
A modern reaction against Aristotelian thought—motivated in part by the outdated nature of his scientific theories—forms the background to MacIntyre’s critique in After Virtue. MacIntyre questions whether this wholesale rejection of Aristotelianism is justified and advocates reinstating the philosopher’s views of teleology and the human good.
Friedrich Nietzsche
One of the most famous and influential 19th-century philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844 into a devout Lutheran family. His education at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig focused first on theology, and then on classical philology. The philosopher Schopenhauer and the composer Richard Wagner formed two of Nietzsche’s greatest influences, and his own writings were devoted to analyzing the philosophy, art, and morality of Western civilization from the perspective of contrasting ancient classical culture with the secularization of the Enlightenment. Nietzsche’s academic career, which was cut short by ill health, was centered in Basel.
Nietzsche’s significance for MacIntyre in After Virtue lies in his having thought through the consequences of the Enlightenment’s attempt to redefine morality, thus creating a crisis of values and belief for Western civilization—leading to his famous observation, “God is dead.” In light of the urgency of Nietzsche’s insights, MacIntyre concludes that the future of moral thought in the West lies in choosing between Nietzsche and the more traditional ethics of Aristotle. Believing in the imminent collapse of Western ethical thought, Nietzsche advocated a “will to power” inspired by the aristocratic and heroic ethic of the Homeric age, discussed by MacIntyre in Chapter 10 of After Virtue.
Nietzsche died in 1900 after a long-term physical and mental health crisis, caused in part by injuries from the Franco-Prussian War. Nietzsche’s 20th-century influence was both great and controversial, with generations of philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and politicians analyzing and appropriating his ideas in various forms.
