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What Happened in and to Moral Philosophy in the Twentieth Century? is a volume of essays originally presented at University College Dublin in 2009 to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Alasdair MacIntyre—a protagonist at the center of that very question. What marks this collection is the unusual range of approaches and perspectives, representing divergent and even contradictory positions. Such variety reflects MacIntyre's own intellectual trajectory, which led him to engage successively with various schools of thought: analytic, Marxist, Christian, atheist, Aristotelian, Augustinian, and Thomist. This collection presents a unique profile of twentieth-century moral philosophy and is itself an original contribution to ongoing debate.
The volume begins with Alasdair MacIntyre's fascinating philosophical self-portrait, "On Having Survived the Academic Moral Philosophy of the Twentieth Century," which charts his own intellectual development. The first group of essays considers MacIntyre's revolutionary contribution to twentieth-century moral philosophy: its value in understanding and guiding human action, its latent philosophical anthropology, its impetus in the renewal of the Aristotelian tradition, and its application to contemporary interests. The next group of essays considers the complementary and competing traditions of emotivism, Marxism, Thomism, and phenomenology. A third set of essays presents thematic analyses of such topics as evolutionary ethics, accomplishment and just desert, relativism, evil, and the inescapability of ethics. MacIntyre responds with a final essay, "What Next?" which addresses questions raised by contributors to the volume.
“A newly published volume of essays edited by Fran O’Rourke marks the most recent attempt to grapple with the complex ramifications of MacIntyre’s thought. . . . O’Rourke has . . . gathered a number of truly excellent and thought provoking pieces that move the discussion on MacIntyre and philosophical issues in political theory, ethics, and philosophy of social science further.” —Philosophy in Review
“This Festschrift brings together the majority of those papers presented at a conference held in Dublin in March 2009 to honour Alasdair MacIntyre. The tribute is richly deserved, for throughout his career Macintyre’s work has displayed, not only formidable powers of analysis and wide ranging intellectual curiosity, but also an uncommon readiness to defy the philosophical fashions of his age.” —Philosophical Investigations
“Fran O’Rourke presents a volume of essays that sharply presents an entire century of ethical theories together.It provides the means to engage with century-long theories of moral philosophy in a positive and interesting way. This book is worth reading” —Marx and Philosophy online
"This is an impressive collection of essays, which deserves a wide audience. The book makes an original contribution to the field, since its retrospective of twentieth-century moral philosophy goes beyond the Anglophone mainstream, tackling Catholic and continental as well as Anglophone analytical thought. Given this and given its dedication to Alasdair MacIntyre, it should appeal to philosophers, sociologists, historians, and cultural theorists." —Tom Angier, University of Kent
"This is a wide-ranging collection of articles, written by some of the most interesting and significant figures in contemporary philosophy. The authors discuss MacIntyre’s thought from the very earliest days to the present time, and they cover both themes in his work (Marxism, Emotivism, Thomism) and detailed interpretations of it. MacIntyre offers an Epilogue which is characteristically sensitive and nuanced. No-one with an interest in MacIntyre or recent moral philosophy will wish to be without a copy of this excellent collection." —Sue Mendus, Morrell Professor Emerita of Political Philosophy, University of York
Fran O'Rourke is associate professor of philosophy at University College Dublin. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Human Destinies: Philosophical Essays in Memory of Gerald Hanratty (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012).
Introduction by Fran O’Rourke
1. On Having Survived the Academic Moral Philosophy of the Twentieth Century by Alasdair MacIntyre
Part I . Reading Alasdair MacIntyre
2. Keeping Philosophy Relevant and Humanistic by John Haldane
3. Ethics at the Limits: A Reading of Dependent Rational Animals by Joseph Dunne
4. Alasdair MacIntyre’s Revisionary Aristotelianism: Pragmatism Opposed, Marxism Outmoded, Thomism Transformed by Kelvin Knight
5. Alasdair MacIntyre: Reflections on a Philosophical Identity, Suggestions for a Philosophical Project by Arthur Madigan, S.J.
6. Against the Self-Images of the Age: MacIntyre and Løgstrup by Hans Fink
Part II. Complementary and Competing Traditions
7. MacIntyre and the Emotivists by James Edwin Mahon
8. Naturalism, Nihilism, and Perfectionism: Stevenson, Williams, and Nietzsche in Twentieth-Century Moral Philosophy by Stephen Mulhall
9. Marxism and the Ethos of the Twentieth Century by Raymond Geuss
10. Parallel Projects: Alasdair MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics, Thirteenth-Century Pastoral Theology (Leonard Boyle, O.P.), and Thomistic Moral Theology (Servais Pinckaers, O.P.) by James McEvoy
11. The Perfect Storm: On the Loss of Nature as a Normative Theonomic Principle in Moral Philosophy by Steven A. Long
12. Forgiveness at the Limit: Impossible or Possible? by Richard Kearney
Part III. Thematic Analyses
13. Evolutionary Ethics: A Metaphysical Evaluation by Fran O’Rourke
14. The Social Epistemological Normalization of Contestable Narratives: Stories of Just Deserts by Owen Flanagan
15. History, Fetishism, and Moral Change by Jonathan Rée
16. Relativism, Coherence, and the Problems of Philosophy by Elijah Millgram
17. Ethics and the Evil of Being by William Desmond
18. The Inescapability of Ethics by Gerard Casey
Epilogue: What Next? by Alasdair MacIntyre
List of Contributors
Index of Names