Macintyre: Modern Conception Of Virtue

Improved Essays
MacIntyre’s arguments recognize shortcomings of modern society and analyze a history of virtue. His argument presents concepts to the philosophical world that stimulate a discussion of what does our modern conception of morality and virtue consist. A main point that MacIntyre raises is the idea of modern society losing virtue and the decay of the language of morality. He backs this up by giving examples of moral debates that occur today, such as issues of war and abortion. Through explaining and analyzing these arguments he shows there is an inability to have moral debate due to emotivism and the difficulty in comparing arguments effectively. MacIntyre is successful in presenting this idea to readers as one only must look to modern moral debate …show more content…
As we have already seen, MacIntyre raises the idea of difficulty of agreement in moral debate. In contrast, we do see this agreement occur in religious groups, families and political parties. Yet in these institutions not every person agrees with the majority, there are schisms even within these places of typical common belief. MacIntyre has acknowledged the need for a standard set of virtues, yet this seems to be an impossible task in the modern world full of diversity of ideas and …show more content…
Modernization is an expansion of thoughts, and perhaps in modern times moral debates can’t be agreed upon. Perhaps, they can only be resolved by an acknowledgement and acceptance of differing opinions and beliefs. In this case, we would have to be able, as a society, to live with unresolved issues and hold beliefs individually. It seems to be impossible to set the morals of individuals because they have their own ideas and traditions. Accepting a more Aristotelian view may be moving backward and, instead of accepting the values of ancient Greece we should be fitting a new conception to the times we find ourselves in. MacIntyre does attempt this when he describes his own version of virtue, but he doesn’t completely eradicate the thought that perhaps parts of the Aristotelian philosophy are outdated.
Summary:
MacIntyre opens a discussion with his book that revolves around our modern version of virtue. He stimulated contemplation upon what modern values are based. Through exploring the history of virtue and posing the idea that morality is lost in a modern society, MacIntyre forces us to scrutinize the modern system of virtue and ask ourselves if we need to adapt a new system to live in a society full of successful moral

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