Can the virtuous person exist in the modern world?
Jonathan Lear
- The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Vol. I by Alasdair MacIntyre
Cambridge, 230 pp, £40.00, June 2006, ISBN 0 521 67061 6 - Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays, Vol. II by Alasdair MacIntyre
Cambridge, 239 pp, £40.00, June 2006, ISBN 0 521 67062 4
If there is a single theme running through these essays it is the importance of our commitment to truth. Not just to the truth about ourselves and our relations with others, or to the truth about the world: our commitment must be to the concept of truth as central to human wellbeing. This, of course, runs counter to one of the philosophical clichés of our time: that there is no such thing as objective truth, that truth is a superstition we no longer need and would be better off without. Alasdair MacIntyre’s original volume of selected essays, published 35 years ago, had the title Against the Self-images of the Age. The idea that we can live without truth is the current self-image he has set himself against.
You are not Logged In
- If you have already registered login here
- If you are a print subscriber using the site for the first time please register here
- If you are not yet a subscriber you can subscribe here
- If you are a member of a subscribing institution or University library please login here
- If you have an Institutional print subscription and online access is not included, find out about our Institutional online subscriptions