Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T09:03:58.451Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In defense of the rationality of traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Peter Seipel
Peter Seipel*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Alasdair MacIntyre has developed a theory of the rationality of traditions that is designed to show how we can maintain both the tradition-bound nature of rationality, on the one hand, and non-relativism, on the other. However, his theory has been widely criticized. A number of recent commentators have argued that the theory is either inconsistent with his own conception of rationality or else is dependent on the standards of his particular tradition and therefore fails to defuse the threat of relativism. In the present essay, I argue that this objection is mistaken.

Keywords

Alasdair MacIntyretraditionsmoral inquiryrationalitymoral relativism
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , June 2015 , pp. 257 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gamwell, Franklin. 1990. The Divine Good. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1993. Justification and Application. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Haldane, John. 1994. “MacIntyre's Thomist Revival: What's Next?”; In After MacIntyre: Critical Perspectives on the Work of Alasdair MacIntyre, edited by Horton, John and Mendus, Susan, 91–107. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Herdt, Jennifer. 1998. “Alasdair MacIntyre's ‘Rationality of Traditions’ and Tradition-transcendental Standards of Justification.”; The Journal of Religion 78 (4): 524–546.10.1086/jr.1998.78.issue-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbs, Thomas. 1991. “MacIntyre, Tradition, and the Christian Philosopher.”; The Modern Schoolman 68: 211–223.10.5840/schoolman199168331CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lott, Micah. 2002. “Reasonably Traditional: Self-contradiction and Self-reference in Alasdair MacIntyre's Account of Tradition-based Rationality.”; Journal of Religious Ethics 30 (3): 315–339.10.1111/1467-9795.00111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (1977) 2006. “Epistemological Crises, Dramatic Narrative, and the Philosophy of Science.”; In The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, 3–23. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511819797Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1984. After Virtue. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1988. Whose Justice? Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1990. Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. (1990) 2006. “First Principles, Final Ends, and Contemporary Philosophical Issues.”; In The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, 143–178. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511819797Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1991. “Incommensurability, Truth, and the Conversation between Confucians and Aristotelians about the Virtues.”; In Culture and Modernity: East-west Philosophic Perspectives, edited by Deutsch, Eliot, 104–122. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1994. “A Partial Response to My Critics.”; In After MacIntyre: Critical Perspectives on the Work of Alasdair MacIntyre, edited by Horton, John and Mendus, Susan, 283–304. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. (1994) 2006. “Moral Relativism, Truth and Justification.”; In The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, 52–73. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511819797Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 2006. “Aquinas and the Extent of Moral Disagreement.”; In Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays, 64–84. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511606670CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 2009. “Intractable Moral Disagreements.”; In Intractable Disputes about the Natural Law: Alasdair MacIntyre and Critics, edited by Cunningham, Lawrence, 1–52. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Mehl, Peter. 1991. “In the Twilight of Modernity: MacIntyre and Mitchell on Moral Traditions and Their Assessment.”; Journal of Religious Ethics 19 (1): 21–54.Google Scholar
Mosteller, Timothy. 2006. Relativism in Contemporary American Philosophy. London: Continuum International.Google Scholar
Nicholas, Jeff. 2012. Reason, Tradition, and the Good: MacIntyre's Tradition-constituted Reason and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Porter, Jean. 1993. “Openness and Constraint: Moral Reflection as Tradition-guided Inquiry in Alasdair MacIntyre's Recent Works.”; The Journal of Religion 73 (4): 514–536.10.1086/jr.1993.73.issue-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Hilary. 1995. “Pragmatism, Relativism, and the Justification of Democracy.”; In Campus Wars: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference, edited by Arthur, John and Shapiro, Amy, 264–273. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Seipel, Peter. 2014. “Tradition-Constituted Inquiry and the Problem of Tradition-Inherence.”; The Thomist 78 (3): 419–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R. Scott. 2003. Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge: Philosophy of Language after MacIntyre and Hauerwas. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Williams, Linda. 1993. “On Making Nietzsche Consistent.”; The Southern Journal of Philosophy 31 (1): 119–131.10.1111/sjp.1993.31.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar