At the foundation of moral thinking lie beliefs in statements the truth of which no further reason can be given. Alasdair MacIntyre More Quotes by Alasdair MacIntyre More Quotes From Alasdair MacIntyre There ought not be two histories, one of political and moral action and one of political and moral theorizing, because there were not two pasts, one populated only by actions, the other only by theories. Every action is the bearer and expression of more or less theory-laden beliefs and concepts; every piece of theorizing and every expression of belief is a politcal and moral action. Alasdair MacIntyre expression two past Of what story or stories do I find myself a part? Alasdair MacIntyre stories Modern politics is civil war carried on by other means. Alasdair MacIntyre politics war mean I have confronted theoretical positions whose protagonists claim that what I take to be historically produced characteristics of what is specifically modern are in fact the timelessly necessary characteristics of all and any moral judgment, of all and any selfhood. Alasdair MacIntyre judgment moral facts What our laws show is the extent and degree to which conflict has to be suppressed. Alasdair MacIntyre conflict degrees law Traditions, when vital, embody continuities of conflict. Indeed when a tradition becomes Burkean, it is always dying or dead. Alasdair MacIntyre conflict tradition dying We are waiting not for a Godot but for another-doubtless very different-St. Benedict. Alasdair MacIntyre godot different waiting The hypothesis I wish to advance is thatthe language of morality is ingrave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have--very largely if not entirely--lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality. Alasdair MacIntyre keys expression wish A striking feature of moral and political argument in the modern world is the extent to which it is innovators, radicals, and revolutionaries who revive old doctrines, while their conservative and reactionary opponents are the inventors of new ones. Alasdair MacIntyre doctrine political world The attempted professionalization of serious and systematic thinking has had a disastrous effect upon our culture Alasdair MacIntyre systematic culture thinking Those emotive theorists who said that the function of moral utterance was to evince emotion would... have been correct if they had substituted the indefinite for the definite article. Alasdair MacIntyre utterance psychology ethics
