Tradition, Thomism and Theism in the Moral Philosophy of Alasdair Maclntyre

Alasdair Maclntyre in making a series of criticisms of modern and contemporary morality and moral philosophy defends the thesis that moral disagreement and the absence of rational justification for morality is the fruit of the abandonment of the teleological element of ethics, especially the abandonment of aristotelian ethics, which leads him to propose the resumption of the teleological ethics of Aristotle. This revival is justified by the theory of the rationality of traditions by asserting that the traditional mode of investigation is the best and that the aristotelian-thomistc tradition corresponds to a moral tradition superior to its rivals. With his adherence to this tradition Maclntyre will point to Thomas Aquinas as the theoretician who managed to bring together all the characteristics of the traditional way of moral investigation, integrating the aristotelian and augustinian tradition, which made Maclntyre himself approach and appropriate each fundamental elements of Thomism. The Thomism of Maclntyre, in turn, undergoes a series of criticisms and objections, especially in relation to the tensions that are established within the author's thought, which in After Virtue promised a secular and pragmatic thought. This work will deal with this tension and some criticisms directed at Maclntyre's Thomism.