Faculty Publication: Professor Emeritus of Political Science Stephen Salkever
On Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity: MacIntyre, Strauss, and Modern Aristotelianism
Author: Stephen Salkever
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source: Politics & Poetics - A Journal for Humane Philosophy, Vol 4, June 2018
Abstract: Alasdair MacIntyre and Leo Strauss share a common project: the interpretive revival of the voices of Aristotle and Plato to formulate, for modern purposes, a sceptical framework for ethical and political critique that is neither relativistic nor dogmatic, and that cannot be achieved on the basis of mainstream modern moral and political philosophy. Both MacIntyre and Strauss hold that a turn toward ancient Greek philosophy can lead to a more accurate understanding of the possibilities and problems of our modern world. Even where they disagree, as in the case of the theoretical status of Aristotle’s species teleology, bringing the two into dialogue can provide a superb introduction to the questions central to their shared philosophical and pedagogical project. Like Plato’s Socrates in Republic VII, MacIntyre and Strauss are committed to a kind of teaching that is protreptic in a way that leads not to discipleship but towards further and better prohairetic inquiry.