A Philosopher is a Philosopher

I had hoped that Dr. Maclintyre would with some dogmatism, bring into sharper relief the differences between modern notions of virtue, and those held by Aristotle. And of course this would by necessity, include those Aristotelians who adhered to Aristotle's philosophy. Unfortunately, I was offered a more softened, and restrained comparison.

This treatise is written by a philosopher, and it is a superb philosophic book. Nevertheless, I am not a philosopher, and do not aspire to be one. At this point though, I want to unhesitatingly commend Derek Perkins for his excellent work in his narration of After Virtue. He made my overall experience with this audiobook very pleasant!

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10 people found this helpful

good philosophy

I heard about this book from the Great Courses history of Western philosophy. Was a great follow up to that and the narration is fantastic for the genre. Thought-provoking and perspective-altering ideas in here that make a whole lot of intuitive sense. Will be seeking out more like this!

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7 people found this helpful

An essential and groundbreaking work of moral philosophy

MacIntyre’s work is a magnificent one and essential to anyone who cares to speak meaningfully with moral language.

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1 person found this helpful

Well performed reading of 20th cent. classic

Alastair MacIntyre's After Virtue is by now a classic of 20th-century philosophical literature, which has the rare accomplishment of having attracted the interest of analytic philosophers, continental philosophers and social scientists, as well as Thomists and historians of medieval and ancient philosophy. As MacIntyre wrote in his introduction, this book was written while he was an Aristotelian, but not yet a Thomist.

The central argument of the book is that modern culture and philosophy has lost the capacity for moral reasoning ever since having abandoned Aristotle's "metaphysical biology" and the Christian conception of a human telos or end. Without teleology, any attempt at moral reasoning based exclusively on so-called moral rules and the facts about human nature as it is will ultimately fail to meet its own standards, and the history of modern moral philosophy is a history of such failures. Each new moral philosophy, MacIntyre believes, disguises a mere appeal to personal preference hidden beneath a moral myth, like that of managerial efficiency, utility, human rights, or non-natural properties.

This audiobook edition is terrific. For one, since it is of the third edition of MacIntyre's work, it includes several helpful essays forewords and afterwords by MacInerny reflecting on his book and criticisms of it. The reader of the audiobook, Derek Perkins, is one of the best on Audible. While I am not expert enough to say whether he pronounced everything correctly in the many languages he was forced to pronounce, nothing jumped out at me as obviously wrong (unlike many philosophy books on Audible), and, to my American ear, he makes his foreign-language utterances sound natural.

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1 person found this helpful

Greatest of moral philosophy

This is one of the best moral philosophy books I have read. I’m especially impressed with the historical treatment showing the modern fracturing of the human self that predicates the landscape of competing moral theories.

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1 person found this helpful

A Penetrating Examination

“After Virtue” keenly contextualizes and analyzes the inadequacies of modern and post-modern moral philosophy, questioning whether our abandonment of Aristotelianism was actually as wise as many today now assume. A deeply insightful, and thoroughly thought-provoking work.

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Outstanding philosophy

Very well read, good philosophy. It makes the text clear and engaging, without dumbing down the dense philosophy.

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Greatly sarisfying.

extremely difficult to follow unfortunately if you have not read into all the refrences. I'd say at least a decade for me otherwise you may be lost. but the arguments are in line with my own thoughts

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Antique Philosophy Doesn't Work...

It's dead. Leave Aristotle and Thomas buried already. This guy has no clue how poorly he grasps contemporary philosophy of language or contemporary discussions of truth or modern science or... It isn't possible to pick a single problem. They are all so terribly obvious. It pays to live in the past, if you want to forgo work and simply introspect. You can even invent whole sociological theories without any data. Amazing.

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Dense

Dense read. A little hard to follow on the audio version at points. But an important defense of virtue ethics. Seems to stop just when it starts to get good in the last chapter.

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