from the latter part of Alasdair MacIntyre's very interesting 'After Virtue'

[virescere]

"Nothing in my argument suggests, let alone implies any good grounds for rejecting certain forms of government as necessary and legitimate; what the argument does entail is that the modern state is not such a form of government. It must have been clear from earlier parts of my argument that the tradition of the virtues is at variance with central

Comments

[taym]

This is wonderful... Have you been getting much out of AV? Alasdair MacIntyre really is the balls.

[virescere]

I've only just started it; I think I'm on page 50 or so... I, ahem, skipped ahead a bit and found that excerpt.. which sounds silly, it not being fiction with a linear story (in antsyness, the reading of the final page).. anyway,

I've found that while 'After Virtue' isn't so easy to get through for me (I'm used to.. smooth fiction), it's something I don't want to put down -and when I do, I certainly want to get back to it. And that is more or less a first when it comes to philo.esque texts.

What I do think is that MacIntyre is on to something (if not outright correct?) and that this is a pretty significant book. Have you read it?

(and yes, he is the balls)

[cptnapalm]

In After Virtue, he is most certainly an Aristotelian. He later modifies his view on the ability of practices, defined very particularly, to provide what Aristotle's metaphysical biology lacked.... I'm babbling.

At any rate, his views on the double helix that is the bureaucratic individualism are really the best thing I have seen relating to the modern world.

[virescere]

"He later modifies his view on the ability of practices, defined very particularly, to provide what Aristotle's metaphysical biology lacked."

Do you mean that he balances the Aris. approach with what modern science or psychology can offer? I remember reading a critique of virtue ethics that focused on that (if I properly understood it).

[cptnapalm]

The metaphysical biology of Aristotle is basically his understanding of what a human being is. In After Virtue, he tried to replace it with his own notion of practices. I *think* it is in Dependent Rational Animals where he sees that there is a need for a metaphysical biology, but that Aristotle's is not adequate. In that work (again, if memory serves) MacIntyre looks at the research on intelligent animals, mostly dolphins, and takes a look at what distinguishes the human being from them. So, if that was a criticism that you mentioned, his answer begins in Dependenet Rational Animals, at least partially seeing the criticism as having valid force.