It is certain that in his life and in his work we will continue to find a bequest search and research in anthropology and ethics

In this month of May 2025, the British moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who lived in the United States for more than 50 years, left us. Without a doubt, he was one of the most influential thinkers in ethics in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. His best-known book, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981), placed him in a prominent position in the programs of study contemporary work on ethics, offering a suggestive and persuasive explanation of the moral crisis of modernity from an Aristotelian point of view.

Born in Glasgow, after receiving a training An academic in the United Kingdom, she moved to the United States in the early 1970s. There she worked at universities such as Brandeis, Boston, Wellesley College, Vanderbilt, and Duke. The prestigious Notre Dame University in Indiana finally became her academic home a few decades ago.

After a pathway of searching in Marxism, the Philosophy analytics and psychoanalysis, finds in the Philosophy Aristotelianism offers a privileged place to criticize liberalism and the concealment experienced by the ethics of modernity. MacIntyre has chosen to position himself on the "margins" of the latter. This position has allowed him to understand it from within and evaluate it from an external perspective. According to our author, the elements core topic To revitalize the ethics and politics in which we live in this advanced modernity are found in the ideas of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, enriched with certain contributions from the Marxist critique of liberalism and a narrative vision of human existence.
 

First of all, your Philosophy Morality is characterized by a profound critique of the modern fragmentation of ethical thinking. It considers that all morality is linked to a specific social and cultural context, and therefore rejects the existence of universal rational criteria detached from any tradition. In his best-known work, After Virtue , MacIntyre diagnosed the modern moral crisis, characterized by ethical disagreement and "emotivism," according to which moral judgments do not express objective truths or appeal to universal reasons, but simply reflect the speaker's feelings, preferences, or attitudes. In this context, there are no shared rational foundations.

Initially attracted to Marxism's critique of the liberal-capitalist order, MacIntyre concluded that it did not offer a radical alternative, as it shared the Structures of modernity. Its proposal alternative arises from an Aristotelian reinterpretation of the moral life centered on virtues for its realization. These are adequately understood from the approach "finalist" (teleological) view of human nature and a narrative view of the moral subject.

MacIntyre also incorporates the notion of tradition as an essential context for ethics and recognizes Thomas Aquinas as a figure who extends Aristotle's thought beyond the Greek thinker, and does so critically. Finally, he emphasizes human vulnerability and dependence as key to understanding virtues such as mercy and just generosity, essential in the pursuit of the common good to which we all aspire.

A rich and controversial thinker, he has sown the entire world with disciples who continue to investigate his works and his thesis with depth. It is certain that in his life and work we will continue to find a bequest search and research in anthropology and ethics. Rest in peace.