MacIntyre and "Intelligibility"
Alisdair MacIntyre is a major reformer of modern philosophy, still kicking at the time of writing at the age of 87. He is particularly noted for his treatment of ethics in "After Virtue".
His ethical treatment of economics are discussed here
Fore the purpose of this blog, his main contribution is the concept of "intelligibility". How do you regard one system of ethics as superior or "more advanced" than another? His answer is that, in an advanced system, "lesser" systems are at least "intelligible". For example, we can understand the idea of chopping off heads to make the sun rise every day even if we abhor it. On the other hand, "modern" ideas of tolerance, forgiveness and justice may not have made sense to the average Aztec.
I like this idea as an alternative to slugging away and trying to prove ourselves "right", which has resulted only in the exponential growth of philosophical papers nobody reads. We need to start with the more modest goal of just making sense to each other.
By the way, ethics is one of the fields of philosophy that escapes Bennetts wrath and he shares many of Bennett's complaints about the emptiness of modern philosophical discourse. It's at least potentially useful, which means I can imagine that a civil conversation between myself, MacIntyre and Bennett is at least imaginable.
Fore the purpose of this blog, his main contribution is the concept of "intelligibility". How do you regard one system of ethics as superior or "more advanced" than another? His answer is that, in an advanced system, "lesser" systems are at least "intelligible". For example, we can understand the idea of chopping off heads to make the sun rise every day even if we abhor it. On the other hand, "modern" ideas of tolerance, forgiveness and justice may not have made sense to the average Aztec.
I like this idea as an alternative to slugging away and trying to prove ourselves "right", which has resulted only in the exponential growth of philosophical papers nobody reads. We need to start with the more modest goal of just making sense to each other.
By the way, ethics is one of the fields of philosophy that escapes Bennetts wrath and he shares many of Bennett's complaints about the emptiness of modern philosophical discourse. It's at least potentially useful, which means I can imagine that a civil conversation between myself, MacIntyre and Bennett is at least imaginable.
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