Macintyre And The Practice Of Governing Institutions

MacIntyre and the Practice of Governing Institutions

MacIntyre and the Practice of Governing Institutions

This volume offers a cross-disciplinary exploration of Alasdair MacIntyre's provocative approach to governance, drawing on insights from philosophy, economics, sociology, business ethics, and organizational studies. The chapters explore how MacIntyre’s theory is applied to diverse institutional contexts, including education, medicine, and technology, addressing contemporary challenges in governance and ethical decision-making. Bringing together well-known scholars from the 16th Annual Conference of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry (ISME) at the University of Navarra, this book critically examines the role of governing institutions in shaping practices and traditions. It highlights MacIntyre’s distinction between practices and institutions, addressing how these concepts influence ethical governance, leadership, and community-building in today's complex societal landscapes. Contributors explore key themes such as the development of virtues within institutions, the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence, the moral foundations of education, and the governance of professions like medicine and land management. This volume also engages with contemporary issues, offering practical insights for fostering ethical decision-making and community participation in an increasingly technocratic world. MacIntyre and the Practice of Governing Institutions is an essential resource for scholars of political philosophy, ethics, and governance, as well as for practitioners looking to navigate the ethical challenges posed by modern institutions. By examining how MacIntyre's thought applies to real-world issues, this book provides both theoretical depth and practical strategies for promoting human flourishing through virtuous governance.

Political Economy, Institutions and Virtue

This book engages with a radical critique of the modern state and the contemporary economic order: Alasdair MacIntyre’s ‘revolutionary Aristotelianism’ project. Central to this critique is the idea that the moral norms that markets and states tend to reproduce or reinforce are an obstacle to the development of practical judgement. The book outlines MacIntyre’s theory of practical reason and discusses some of the institutional arrangements that can be derived from it. It also explores the growing body of literature which has started to examine the extent to which alternative forms of social organisation might be more compatible with MacIntyre’s account of the virtues. This literature includes various proposals for alternative political and economic arrangements, ranging from certain forms of market socialism to the promotion of different forms of mutual and cooperative enterprises. Finally, the book offers an account of the type of institutional analysis required for the advancement of the revolutionary Aristotelianism project. This is achieved by showing how some key features of the Bloomington School of political economy are not only compatible with MacIntyre’s political philosophy, but also that a synthesis between neo- Aristotelian moral philosophy and the work of the Bloomington School offers a robust alternative for revolutionary Aristotelians. Thus, the book defends the idea that MacIntyre’s account of human flourishing is more likely to be realised, although imperfectly, in a polycentric social order. This book will be of interest to social scientists working in questions of political economy as well as political and moral philosophers.