Can the virtuous person exist in the modern world? 
Jonathan Lear
- The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Vol. I by Alasdair MacIntyre Buy this book
- Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays, Vol. II by Alasdair MacIntyre Buy this book
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.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Jonathan Lear, the author of Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, teaches philosophy at the University of Chicago.
print layout
tell a friend