Alasdair MacIntyre and Utopia: An Introduction

ABSTRACT

For over sixty years, Alasdair MacIntyre has written on the challenges to human flourishing, first as a Marxist and Christian and now as a Thomistic-Aristotelian who insists on the need to read Marx. He has criticized Stalinist Marxism and political liberalism because both rest on autonomous morality, or the divorce of “is” from “ought.” In his mature work, he proposes the concept of practices as a way to unite “is” and “ought” and resist emotivism/expressivism. His theory faces certain weaknesses: the refusal to engage with nation-state politics and of the problem of authoritarianism and a lack of discussion of the domination of nature. Regardless, MacIntyre’s Aristotelianism provides resources in its defense of local communities, its understanding of practices, and its continuous critique of liberalism. Utopian and left thinkers would serve their project best by engaging with MacIntyre’s analysis of autonomous morality, without which we will fail to advance utopian causes.

KEYWORDS:

• Alasdair MacIntyre
• autonomous morality
• practices
• desire
• utopian thought

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Jeffery L. Nicholas is an associate professor at Providence College and a research associate at the Center for Aristotelian Studies and Critical Theory at Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania). He is co-founder of and serves as executive secretary for the International Society for MacIntyre Enquiry. Dr. Nicholas’s research focuses on critical theory, contemporary Aristotelianism, popular culture, and midwifery. His current research project involves developing a politics of liberation on love as the final rejection of alienation. His recent publications include Reason, Tradition, and the Good: MacIntyre’s Tradition-Constituted Reason and Frankfurt School Critical Theory (UNDP, 2012), “Refusing Polemics: Retrieving Marcuse for MacIntyrean Practice” (Radical Philosophy Review, vol. 20, no. 10, 2017), and “The Common Good, Rights, and Catholic Social Doctrine” (Solidarity, vol. 5, no. 1, 2015).