Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre

Abstract

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025) was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, known for his profound influence on moral and political philosophy. Born in Glasgow in 1929, he studied classics in London and then philosophy at Manchester, taught philosophy and sociology at various universities in Britain, and moved to the United States in the early 1970s. He died there on May 21, 2025. His work – particularly After Virtue (1981), Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (1988), Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (1990), and Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity (2016) – revitalized the Aristotelian tradition of ethics and offered a powerful critique of moral individualism and emotivism in capitalist modernity. MacIntyre’s thought bridges different philosophical traditions, combining rigorous philosophical analysis with deep historical insight. His emphasis on the importance of practices, the narrative unity of life, and traditions, as well as his refusal to compartmentalize theory and practice, have reshaped contemporary ethical theory and continue to inspire debate across philosophy, theology, and the social sciences. This is my personal account of him as my philosophical inspiration.