After Virtue (University of Notre Dame Press, 1981)

Alasdair MacIntyre · c. 1981

Alasdair MacIntyre did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Contemporary moral debate is marked by disagreements that never end

Their wordsThe most striking feature of contemporary moral utterance is that so much of it is used to express disagreements; and the most striking feature of the debates in which these disagreements are expressed is their interminable character.
Our reading
We need local communities that can sustain moral and intellectual life through a new dark age

Their wordsWhat matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.
Our reading
The barbarians are not at the frontiers; they have been governing us for some time

Their wordsThis time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time.
Our reading
There are no natural human rights; believing in them is like believing in witches and unicorns

Their wordsthere are no such rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and in unicorns.

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