After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre

First published: 1981; revised, 1984

Type of work: Philosophy

Form and Content

After Virtue is an extended philosophical argument, informed by linguistic, historical, and sociological analyses, that seeks to explain the continuing irresolution of modern moral disputes; to critique the modern bureaucratic state and the claims of management science; and to provide an alternative to emotivist ethics in the form of a refashioned conception of the Aristotelian idea of virtue.

Written both for the practicing philosopher and for the interested layperson, the book arose from author Alasdair MacIntyre’s growing conviction that while every system of morality originates from, and is embedded in, a particular historical stream, it is nevertheless possible to offer a sound defense of one system over other competitors—without abstracting each system from its context and comparing abstractions. That, says MacIntyre, is a “barren” enterprise; for it is only within social contexts that ethical systems have meaning, and it is only through a historical and sociological analysis of each moral tradition that one, the Aristotelian tradition, can be vindicated.

The modern world, or at least the industrialized West, has, in terms of moral discourse, descended into a new Dark Age. Moral judgments lack content and are merely expressive of how one feels about a matter; this kind of ethical emotivism is an inheritance from the failure of the eighteenth century Enlightenment to provide an objective basis for moral judgments. In marked contrast is another historical stream, the Aristotelian virtue tradition, which can not only produce a coherent picture of the Enlightenment failure and the consequent breakdown of moral discourse but also show itself superior to contemporary moral fragmentation.

MacIntyre’s dialectical analysis of competing ethical traditions—how each tradition enlarges itself by building on its own failures and successes—owes a debt to G. W. F. Hegel. Since the development of each tradition takes place in history, historical explanation is central to MacIntyre’s project of telling a story that “hangs together” in its delineation of the modern moral lapse into emotivism and its characterization of the virtue tradition as a coherent alternative. Historical explanation (and here MacIntyre is influenced by historian R. G. Collingwood) assumes that each historical act expresses a thought; the historian’s quest is to discover the thoughts expressed in those acts: The thought explains the act.

It is MacIntyre’s thesis that, though many continue to argue moral issues as if their words had rational force, “we have—very largely, if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.” Analytic philosophy, as well as academic history, lacks the evaluative categories with which to discover and chart this profound disorder in moral discourse. The first eight chapters of After Virtue are devoted to the modern moral disorder. In the pivotal ninth chapter (“Nietzsche or Aristotle?”), MacIntyre paints a stark picture of contemporary society at a moral crossroads. Finally, chapters 10 through 18 trace the various conceptions of the virtues developed since classical times and how the virtues, properly reconceived, make it meaningful to speak of the unity of a human life and coherent moral discourse. (A nineteenth chapter, published in the second edition of the book in 1984, contains various short replies to MacIntyre’s critics.)

Critical Context

After Virtue is a watershed book, a powerful, provocative, and contentious critique of contemporary society and a literate revisioning of the Aristotelian genius. The book has created wide-ranging debate in the fields of linguistics, rhetoric, political science, religion, and ethics. By the late 1980’s, portions of the work were finding their way into undergraduate ethics texts. The publication of After Virtue was in part the bellwether of a new interest in the virtue tradition. Yet the debate over the nature of the virtues and the validity of the tradition itself has continued unabated.

MacIntyre’s redefinition of the meaning of the virtues profoundly alters the Aristotelian conception based on an ahistorical account of human nature. MacIntyre grounds his notion of virtue in the ongoing, historical human enterprise, and thus he is open to charges of historicism and relativism. Yet, though he admits that the virtue tradition is one tradition among many, he also affirms that in the dialectical interchange with rival traditions it shows itself to be the “better” choice. If other critics have taken exception to his characterization of Kant or Hume—or even Aristotle—MacIntyre affirms that continued dialogue will shed light on and correct the deficiencies in his theory. Of particular importance is a better understanding of how the virtue tradition was displaced as the medieval classical-Christian synthesis began to disintegrate and the age of reason began to dawn.

In two earlier books, Marxism: An Interpretation (1953; revised as Marxism and Christianity, 1968) and Against the Self-Images of the Age: Essays on Ideology and Philosophy (1971), MacIntyre was in the process of developing his cultural critique and of finding his own narrative tradition. In Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (1988), a technical but accessible sequel to After Virtue, the author endeavors to demonstrate how the very conception of rationality and practical reasoning (especially in what it means to “do justice”) is radically different among several competing traditions (including those of Aristotle and David Hume). MacIntyre finally affirms that the Aristotelian-Thomistic synthesis is, of all the traditions he considers, best able to meet objections and, as the long dialectical debate has shown, most worthy of vindication.

Additional Reading

Casey, John. Pagan Virtue: An Essay in Ethics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. A very useful general discussion on virtue ethics from a distinguished moral philosopher.

Engelhardt, H. Tristram, Jr., and Daniel Callahan, eds. Knowledge, Value, and Belief. Hastings, N.Y.: Hastings Center, 1977. This contains a chapter on MacIntyre’s earlier work, put within the context of the Hastings Center Institute of Society, Ethics, and Life Sciences, with its focus on applied ethics, and where MacIntyre worked for a year.

Fuller, M. B. Making Sense of MacIntyre. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1998. This book attempts to understand and pinpoint some of MacIntyre’s philosophical positions.

Gunnemann, Jon P. “Habermas and MacIntyre on Moral Learning.” In The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. Boston: Society of Christian Ethics, 1994. Gunnemann notes that MacIntyre dismisses Jürgen Habermas’s Kantianism in Three Rival Versions, and that Habermas also dismisses MacIntyre. He looks at differences and areas of moral convergence, suggesting that Habermas does better in accounting for moral constructions and understanding other traditions, but MacIntyre does better on questions of moral identity.

Gutting, Gary. Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critique of Modernity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A critical analysis of the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Richard Rorty, and Charles Taylor.

Horton, John, and Susan Mendus, eds. After MacIntyre. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. Horton and Mendus bring together a collection of critical essays on MacIntyre, exploring especially his criticisms of the Enlightenment. The opening essay elucidates succinctly MacIntyre’s development since After Virtue. The collection as a whole balances elucidation and critique. There are sixteen essays, including one by MacIntyre.

McCann, Dennis P., and M. L. Brownsberger. “Management as a Social Practice: Rethinking Business Ethics After MacIntyre.” In The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. Knoxville, Tenn.: Society of Christian Ethics, 1990. The authors see MacIntyre as having uncritically assimilated Aristotle’s prejudice against commerce. They take one of MacIntyre’s “social characters,” the business manager, and challenge his concept of him, and thus his critique of modern liberal societies. The article does this, however, within the context of MacIntyre’s theory of social practices, which they wish to retain.

McMylor, Peter. Alasdair MacIntyre: Critic of Modernity. London: Routledge, 1994. The fullest account so far of MacIntyre’s thinking, especially his radical critique of contemporary philosophy and culture. McMylor acknowledges both the strengths and weaknesses of such a critique.

Von Dohlen, Richard F. Culture War and Ethical Theory. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997. This book contains a chapter on MacIntyre’s philosophical theories.