The paper explores the relation between a contemporary Aristotelian conception of human flourishing and two critical perspectives on work. The meaningful work perspective inquires what kind of work ...would be meaningful, by arguing that meaningful work is essential for human flourishing. The post-work perspective argues that good life lies outside work and workplaces and calls to eliminate work as much as possible. The paper suggests that it is possible to acknowledge the insights of both perspectives via contemporary Aristotelian notions of practice and human flourishing. The notion of practice incorporates the conception of meaningful work, yet it applies to nonwork activities as well. Conceptualization of human well-being via the notion of practice also responds to the post-work challenge of conceiving human flourishing without prioritizing work over other meaningful activities. In this way, a contemporary Aristotelian conception of human flourishing supports both the need for better work and less work.
This paper explores recent developments in the virtue ethics approach to human flourishing in technological societies. I discuss the merits of virtue ethics in a broader context of various ...philosophies of technology. I propose that a distinction can be made between two broad approaches to the question of the good life and technology: the production approach that focuses on the roles technologies could and do play in production for the elimination of various forms of labour and the consumption approach that focuses on the role of technology in everyday social settings and interactions outside the workplace. Finding that the virtue ethics approach currently remains almost exclusively focused on consumption, I conclude the article with a suggestion for how virtue theory can be advanced beyond consumption using the resources of the same virtue ethics tradition.
Šiame straipsnyje analizuojami du skirtingi požiūriai į prasmingo gyvenimo klausimą šiuolaikinėje filosofijoje: estetinis ir etinis. Pirma, aptariamas Michelio Foucault estetinis požiūris, kuriuo ...remdamasis jis siūlo gyvenimą suvokti kaip meno kūrinį. Estetinis požiūris čia suprantamas kaip nuolatinė naujumo, inovacijos, pertrūkio paieška. Toliau aptariamas etinis požiūris Alasdairo MacIntyre’o išplėtotoje šiuolaikinėje neo-aristotelinėje filosofijoje. Etinis požiūris pristatomas kaip tiesioginė nyčiškos filosofijos kritika, siekianti rekonstruoti etinį subjektą per vientisumo, tęstinumo ir gėrio sampratas. Aptariant abu požiūrius, straipsnyje argumentuojama neo-aristotelinės etikos svarba postmoderniajame būvyje.
This article surveys the interpretations of the ethical foundations of Karl Marx’s thought. These interpretations focus on the early ideas of Marx and analyze them in the context of various ...traditions of moral philosophy. Aristotelian ethics is often proposed as the best model to understand the ethical foundations of Marx’s work. This article also points to the significance of Alasdair MacIntyre’s works in moral philosophy for the Aristotelian interpretation of Marx’s ethics.
This article analysis the philosophical debate between Herbert Marcuse and Alasdair MacIntyre on the nature of ideology and practical rationality in advanced capitalist societies. Marcuse’s ...One-Dimensional Man was a powerful and pessimistic judgement on the possibilities of emancipation in advanced industrial society. It also marked an end of the classical Marxist paradigm of universal emancipation through the struggles of the proletariat. MacIntyre replied to Marcuse with the affirmation that Marxist paradigm is no longer valid, but he resisted accepting Marcuse’s conclusion that contemporary human being is inescapably captured by the ideology. MacIntyre affirmed the powers of ordinary people to struggle for a better life. The article ends with the suggestion that the idea of compartmentalization that is developed in MacIntyre’s mature works should be read as a philosophical reply to Marcuse’s thesis of one-dimensionality.
This article analysis the philosophical debate between Herbert Marcuse and Alasdair MacIntyre on the nature of ideology and practical rationality in advanced capitalist societies. Marcuses ...One-Dimensional Man was a powerful and pessimistic judgement on the possibilities of emancipation in advanced industrial society. It also marked an end of the classical Marxist paradigm of universal emancipation through the struggles of the proletariat. MacIntyre replied to Marcuse with the affirmation that Marxist paradigm is no longer valid, but he resisted accepting Marcuses conclusion that contemporary human being is inescapably captured by the ideology. MacIntyre affirmed the powers of ordinary people to struggle for a better life. The article ends with the suggestion that the idea of compartmentalization that is developed in MacIntyres mature works should be read as a philosophical reply to Marcuses thesis of one-dimensionality.
This article asks what philosophers can learn from social research in order to develop the notion of reification further. At first, we present a theoretical analysis of the concept of reification. ...Then we survey the main research into employment and management strategies through various sectors (industry, services and knowledge work) asking to what extent this research is informed by the notion of reification. The last part of the article focuses on Lithuanian research. We conclude that while the notion of reification is not often employed in contemporary social research, much of that research is close to the normative concerns implicit in the notion of reification. This research then provides a valuable input for further philosophical development of the theory of reification.
In this paper, we analyse two alternative approaches to the question of a meaningful life in contemporary philosophy: the aesthetic and the ethical. First, we examine Michel Foucault’s aesthetic ...approach whereby he argues in favour of understanding life as a work of art. Here aesthetics is understood as a constant search for the new, as innovation, and discontinuity. Next we examine the ethical approach found in contemporary neo-Aristotelianism developed by Alasdair MacIntyre. The ethical approach is presented as a direct critique of Nietzcheanism and aims to reconstruct the ethical subject in terms of unity, continuity, and the good. By examining the relation between the two positions, we argue for the importance of neo-Aristotelian ethics in the postmodern condition.
In this article we analyse Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique of modernity in the context of the neo-Aristotelian question of meaningful human existence. We present his critique of modern moral ideology, ...the doctrine of emotivism, and its embodiments in modern institutions and practices. We claim that the central concern of this critique is the question of meaningful human life. Modernity is criticized because its social institutions and practices preclude the articulation of this question. In modernity, all value statements are pushed into the private sphere. In addition, the doctrine of emotivism denies any possibility of rational debate between different moral positions. This leads to the impossibility to distinguish between manipulative and non-manipulative social behaviour, which is embodied in several emotivist social characters, such as manager, aesthete, and therapist. Thus the modern social world is severely compartmentalized, to articulate the question of what is good and meaningful life for human beings becomes hardly possible.
PDF
