ALASDAIR MACINTYRE: VIRTUE ETHICS AND THE MORAL LIMITS OF CAPITALISM

Alasdair MacIntyre, born in 1929, was best known for authoring After Virtue, published in 1981. With philosophies rooted in Aristotelian virtue ethics, he argued that capitalist society lost their ethical sense of purpose. In other words, he believed that capitalist societies lost their senses of fulfilling honesty, justice, and courage.

MacIntyre’s philosophy is rooted in many philosophies; today, we’ll go over three main ones. The first, as discussed as virtue ethics, is achieved through acting with virtue and good will in a community. The second is medieval moral philosophy, which is rooted in Christianity as the driver of moral order and supports the idea that ethics must be grounded in community-based ideals. Finally, we have Marx’s alienation theory, which argues that people get separated from the moral meaning of their labor and as a result of capitalist society are only focused on the monetary result.

In his philosophies, MacIntyre makes a key distinction between internal and external goods. Internal goods are goods that can be achieved only by practicing the practice itself. Examples include craftsmanship, skill, learning, and service. An external good is a benefit that’s not intrinsic to doing the activity but is a benefit of doing an activity, such as money, power, and fame. MacIntyre later argues that with too many external goods, individuals lose sight of moral motivators behind their work and become corrupt.

Let’s take a look at some modern-day examples that MacIntyre would support. The first is ethical business models that focus on a moral impact and also do their work morally. Another example is meaningful motivators behind work. Finally, MacIntyre would support localism, which is a focus on small-scale networks that focus on virtuous impacts over making millions of dollars.

One contrasting philosophy is Adam Smith’s invisible hand theory. Smith actually argues in support of people being motivated by profit for work. He believes that this will benefit the economies of a capitalist society and also the general consumer. Conversely, MacIntyre is wholly against the idea that people should be majorly motivated by economics and even goes as far as to argue that it is in itself unethical.

MacIntyre’s philosophy critiques most of what capitalist society looks like today. However, some questions arise: Is it really possible for a whole economy to be focused on virtuous motivators? How easy is it to prevent yourself from corruption by external factors?