The Enlightenment's failure led to the chaotic state of modern morality and ethics, leading to the utilitarian mode that shaped the 20th century and onward.Ĭhapter 7. This depends on man having an essential nature, so the existentialism of today's culture doesn't permit for this type of ethic.Ĭhapter 6. He mentions Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics and the idea of ethics as the scientific practice of determine which moral ideas will bring man to his full potential. MacIntyre concedes that the Enlightment attempt was doomed from the get-go.

MacIntyre recalls that in the Enlightment, when philosophy was in vogue, the personalities associated with each philosophy were known by the public, but after the Enlightment, the common man became further and further removed from philosophical literacy.Ĭhapter 5. He notes that the inability to discern morality with logic also means that the world exists as a competition of power and bureaucratic success.Ĭhapter 4. This chapter focuses on the nuances between personal moral philosophies and the emergence of sociological results. MacIntyre then wonders whether perhaps this is just a facet of our modern culture, or whether morality is just inherently non-logical.Ĭhapter 3. Even if an opinion is formed logically and expressed in a valid, understandable way, the method used to decide between various opinions is still subjective and arbitrary. The implication is that our society has already done this to the philosophers.Ĭhapter 2.

If such a world would exist, MacIntyre suggests that it would be nearly impossible to detect. He then analyzes the plausibility of this hypothetical and shows the difficulty of understanding the present moment. The result is a technologically savvy community, but without anyone who can truly understand the tools or explain the technology. In a hypothetical, the public has turned against scientists and attempted to remove science's influence from public life.

(The 19th chapter is a postscript to the second edition).Ĭhapter 1. This text is dense and complex, but here is the gist of what each of the 19 chapters indicates. Written by people who wish to remain anonymousĪfter Virtueis not exactly a novel, but it does contain philosophical discussions in the form of hypothetical narratives, a la Plato's Republic perhaps, somewhere between prose and straight philosophy. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

After virtue book