New European Moral Genealogy of Macintyre’s Conception

The conception of Alasdair Macintyre, an Anglo-American philosopher,
historian, theorist of ethics and morality, is discussed in this article. Author
observed only one of the mains of Macintyres works: «After virtue. A study
of Moral Theory» (Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 1981, which was
translated and publisched in Russian in 2000). The Macintyres conception is
interpreted within the framework of modern European moral theory genealogy.
The first subject of the discussion is the origin of moral universality as a principle
of moral theory and its implications. With regard to the Macintyre's views
the genealogy problematisation of his conception contains certain difficulty. It
consists in the fact that Macintyre does not define his project as «genealogy».
Nevertheless, the author shows that the consideration of new European family
of moral theories, categories and concepts of ethics (in the situation of their occurrence)
– is an important perspective of Macintyre’s research. Its main problems
are associated with the discussion of the controversial values of the universalist
«rational justification of morality» in 17th – 18th centuries, the formation of
«the individual» structure and how it has affected on the entire conceptual field
of moral theory. According to Macintyre, our morality is not what it used to be.
But this has to be understood not from the viewpoint of the other content within
the ever same perception of what falls into the competency of moral opinions,
but from the viewpoint of the cardinal change of the sphere of this competency
per se. In the pre-modern society, moral was controlled by the social group
rules, and had a status character. Aside from not containing the universal moral
sense, the very such claim could be perceived as directed against morality. As
Macintyre insists, the significance attributed to moral opinions changed dramatically
in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The moral prescriptions are addressed to
all members of the society and are oriented to the human in general. At the same
time the moral discourse gets separated from religious and aesthetic spheres and
rationalized. According to Macintyre, the competing projects of rational justification
of morality addressed to the human in general cause however the destruction
of clear and holistic ethic language which existed before. In conclusion the
author shows, that the Macintyre’s research is not only connected with the field
of moral history itself, but is also important in bigger field. The Macintyre's
approach is important for understanding of logic of transformation of social
concepts in the late 18th – early 19th century, of society and culture.