Lehrman American Studies Center at ISI

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BOOK

After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

Author:Alasdair MacIntyre
Notes: Includes bibliographic references (p. [279]-281) and index.
ISBN: 0585311072
Publication Info: Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

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Lee Trepanier on Dec 16, 2008

This book is best suited for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. I have assigned this book in my History of Political Thought course for undergraduate where it was not well received by the students. It probably works best for a senior seminar-type course with undergraduate who are well-versed in political philosophy and a few graduate students who can help direct the discussion.

Instead of assigning the chapters chronologically, I start with chapters 10-18 and then chapters 4-8, 1-3 and chapter 19. MacIntyre's historical account of western philosophy provides the basic framework for undergraduates to understand his overarching argument of emotivism and the ethical choice that contemporary man confronts. When I have assigned chapters chronologically, undergraduate students often lack the historical framework to see the differences and similarities among the Enlightenment, medieval, and classical periods.