Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues

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Open Court, 1999 M08 10 - 180 pages
"MacIntyre--one of the foremost ethicists of the past half-century--makes a sustained argument for the cetnrality, in well-lived human lives, of both virtue and local communities of giving and receiving. He criticizes the mainstream of Western ethics, including his own previous position, for not taking seriously the dependent and animal sides of human nature, thereby overemphasizing the powers of reason and the pursuit of reason and the pursuit of autonomy. . . . This important work in ethics is essential for the professional philosopher and is highly readable for students at all levels and for thoughtful citizens." --Choice
 

Contents

Vulnerability flourishing goods and good
How do we become independent practical reasoners? How do
Social relationships practical reasoning common goods
The virtues of acknowledged dependence
The political and social structured of the common good
Proxies friends truthfulness
Moral commitment and rational enquiry
Index Copyright Page

Reasons for action

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About the author (1999)

Alasdair MacIntyre teaches at Notre Dame.

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