ALASDAIR MACINTYRE. ABOUT TRADITION, REVOLUTION AND MODERNITY

Abstract

The philosophical project of Alasdair MacIntyre offers a version of Virtue Ethics that must be interpreted in a revolutionary way, as opposed to a romantic or neoconservative reading. The breakdown of the moral order brought about by the advent of modernity requires forms of political and economic resistance to the alienating power of liberal capitalism in the age of globalization. According to MacIntyre, among the progeny of modern liberalism, we find Nietzsche, who unmasked modern morality as emotivism. However, Nietzsche does not cease to be part of the modern project of rational justification of morality. According to MacIntyre, therefore, the authentic alternative to the modern proyect is the rearticulation of a virtue in the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas.