gallagher on macintyre three rival versions

7/28/2019 Gallagher on Macintyre Three Rival Versions

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which clarifies and enriches the conceptof order in a manner we seldom findbeyond the work of his own intellectualfathers. Happily, these books are them-selves critical and artistic modelsof theorder the author seeks.

ThePursuit of TmthThree Rival Versionsof MoralEnquiry: Encyclopaedia, Gen ea1-

ogy,and Tradition,by Alasdair

ber o opposing answerments never seem to pasThe reason for this lack ofsimply the numberof oppgiven issues. Beneath positions lie much mordifferences. Participantrary debates bring to theferent understandings ofto engage in rational inquintodebate. What are thewhat serves as an argumhow particular argumeweighed, what counts, conflicts, as victory or


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itsee tself asa tradition but rather as thevoiceof impartial and ahistorical reason.Since t represented pure rationality andwas accessible to any rational being therewas no need for any moral predisposi-tions on the partofthe inquirer, particu-larly those of religious belief; religioustests only hindered the work of reasonand their removal produced the modernliberal university. For its proper modeofdiscourse encyclopaedia ixed upon thelecture. In it, the lecturer presents to thepublic the conclusions reached byscien-tific reason without any dialectic defenseof his views against opposing views, the

power. The genealogone of subversion: to the unrecognized motknowledged purposesto truth, especially mserve. The genealogisclaim to universal or fquently the appropriagenealogy is the aphtached fromany largethrusts easily and quIf a genealogist liketake up the form of ache does inThe Genealis no commitment to


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apersonal matter. The questions whichneed answers, the presuppositions whichshape those answers, the literary formsin which they are cast, all these arisewith historical contingency. Questionsare raised and answered, new questionsarise or old answers are challenged; thetradition moves ahead, at each stagesupplyingthe best answers it can find forthe questions it faces. In this way,MacIntyre maintains that truth is justi-fied historically; present beliefs are ac-cepted because, having defeatedall rivalanswers, they are the bestsofar. Clearly,then, within tradition the past is em-braced andeven cherished since it has

moral actions. They seemto be simply irreconcilablChristianity isantitheticasophic understanding ofwho makes belief a condistanding could hardlybeaLikewise, Christian notionfind no room in Aristotlesthe world. It required thenas to unite them, withoucism, into a simple whole tboth, and at the same timfor each oneadecided stHere Aquinas providesconflicting traditions canterms and he even sheds


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situation, outlining how Thomism mightprove its superiority to both theencyclopaedia and genealogy ap-proaches.As an internal problem for theencyclopaedist he points to the notionomoralityand moral obligation, and thepersistent inability to provide any cleargrounding for these.Hedraws afascinat-ing comparison between Enlightenmentmorality and the notion of tabooasitwasdiscovered by Europeans in the eigh-teenth century. The inability of thePolynesian natives to explain taboo arosebecause, in its later stages, taboo wasdetached from its former place in alargerschemeo arelationship to the gods and

its goalofa unitary anupon rationality, whilstill holds sway overbehind almost all desumption that there sindependent of any trarational inquirers equathe very real differendescribed between thneed tobeconfrontedexplicitly recognize tthis would mean that bates would acknowlspeaking from withinother; they must, sotheir colors. They w


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versity become once again thereal pursuit of truth, especialtruth. It is the merit of thisprovide the theoretical framewocan guide our efforts toward th-Reviewed by David G

gallagher on macintyre three rival versions

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