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MacIntyre and Modernity

Sayers, Sean (2011) MacIntyre and Modernity. In: Blackledge, Paul and Knight, Kelvin, eds. Virtue and politics: Alasdair MacIntyre's revolutionary Aristotelianism. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, pp. 79-96. ISBN 978-0-268-02225-9. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:28514)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

According to MacIntyre, the advent of modernity has led to the fragmentation and compartmentalization of social life and values. In this paper I argue that it has also involved the creation of new forms of social relation and new liberal values. MacIntyre's critique does not do justice to the complex and contradictory character of these changes. I make this point through a discussion of the notion of tolerance and of developments in the modern university, including the impact of the RAE. Similar issues are raised by MacIntyre's criticisms of the `enlightenment project' and his attempt to return to an earlier Aristotelian model as the basis for moral and social thought. Rather than rejecting modernity and enlightenment ideas, I argue, we should affirm its core values of liberty, equality and community and seek to realise them in the modern world. A more adequate picture of modernity provides some grounds to question MacIntyre's pessimism about the possibilities of doing so.

Item Type: Book section
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Sean Sayers
Date Deposited: 30 Nov 2011 16:21 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:06 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/28514 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Sayers, Sean.

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