Chinese Scholars’ Studies on MacIntyre’s Philosophy1
Yanliang Zhang
Lanzhou University, Gansu, China
As a philosopher of contemporary Western ethics, MacIntyre has played an
important part in promoting the revival of virtue ethics. His thought has attracted
many Chinese scholars’ attention, and since the 1980s some of his books have been
translated into Chinese. Since the1990s MacIntyre’s philosophy has become an
important subject for discussion in China. In this essay, I will summarize Chinese
scholars’ study of MacIntyre’s philosophy from nine perspectives.
1. Translation
Since 1980s seven books by MacIntyre have been translated into Chinese:
Marcuse,2 After Virtue,3 Whose Justice? Which Rationality?4 Three Rival Versions of
Moral Enquiry,5 A Short History of Ethics,6 Dependent Rational Animals,7 God,
Philosophy, University.8 One book on MacIntyre’s philosophy has been translated
into Chinese.9 Some of MacIntyre’s articles have also been translated. Among them
are, “The Theses on Feuerbach: A Road Not Taken”, “Is Patriotism a Virtue?”,
1
Thanks to the CSC, Professor MacIntyre and Professor O ’Callaghan, without their help, I would not
have had the opportunity to write this essay. Thanks to Professor MacIntyre ’s, Professor David
Solomon’s and Professor Gloria Zeng’s comments, suggestions and proofreading of this paper.
Without their help, I would not have been able to write an academic paper in English.
2
Translated by Shao Yidan, Beijing: China Social Science Press, 1989.
3
There are two different translation versions. One is translated by Gong Qun and Dai Yangyi, Beijing:
China Social Science Press, 1995. The other is translated by Song Jijie, Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2003.
4
Translated by Wan Junren, Beijing: Contemporary China Publishing House, 1996.
5
Translated by Wan Junren, Beijing: China Social Science Press, 1999.
6
Translated by Gong Qun, Beijing: Commercial Pr ess, 2003.
7
Translated by Liu Wei, Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2013.
8
Translated by Zhou Weihang, Taiwan: Fuda Bookstore Press, 2013.
9
Alasdair MacIntyre (Contemporary Focus), Translated by Hu Chuanshun, Guo Sha, Shanghai:
Fudan University Press. 2013.
1
“Incommensurability, Truth and the Dialogue on Virtue Ethic between Confucianism
and Aristotelianist”, “Three Perspectives on Marxism:1953,1968,1995”. The
translation of MacIntyre’s books has been a preliminary to the study of MacIntyre’s
thought.
2. Earlier Studies of MacIntyre’s thought
Gao Guoxi1 was one of the earliest scholars to study MacIntyre’s philosophy. At
the beginning of the 1990s, his initial study of MacIntyre’s philosophy was his Ph.d
dissertation, Going out of the Dilemma of Ethics: The Study of MacIntyre’s Moral
Philosophy and Marx’s Moral Philosophy. In his dissertation Gao Guoxi attempted to
clarify the systematic character of MacIntyre’s thought and the history of the
development of his thought, pointing out the relationship between MacIntyre’s moral
philosophy and the situation of Western morality.
2
He mainly concentrated on how
MacIntyre’s moral philosophy can improve Marx’s moral philosophy.
3
Wan Junren 4 is also interested in MacIntyre’s thought. In the 1990s he
published several articles on MacIntyre’s moral philosophy.In “Moral Typology and
the Comparison of Culture: Having a Conversation with Rawls and MacIntyre on the
Problems of Modern Moral Philosophy”. From the perspective of his moral typology,
1
Gao Guoxi is the dean of School of Marxism at Fudan University.
2
This is one of the four tasks that Gao Guoxi set himself in his dissertation; the other three are: to
discuss the position of MacIntyre in western ethics; to see what we can learn from MacIntyre ’s moral
philosophy; and to compare the relationship between Marx ’s moral philosophy and MacIntyre’s. See
Gao Guoxi: Going out of the Dilemma of Ethics: the Study on MacIntyre ’s Moral Philosophy and
Marx’s Moral Philosophy. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Science press, 1996, p255.
3
Gao Guoxi also published several academic papers on MacIntyre, including: “MacIntyre’s Moral
Philosophy”, Philosophy Trends, 1993, No. 4 ,pp 37-41; “MacIntyre’s Critiques on Contemporary
Western Moral Philosophy”, Social Science Front, 1994, No.4, pp76-82. In addition, he had translated
several of MacIntyre’s papers. In his recently published book Moral Philosophy, he regards
MacIntyre as one of the most important figures in contemporary virtue ethics.
4
Wan Junren is the Dean of the Shool of Humanities at Tsinghua University. He is also the Chairman
of the Association of Ethics in China.
2
he discussed the merits and shortcomings of their theories. In “Traditional Narrative,
Restatement and Arguments on Virtue Ethics”, Wan Junren provided an introduction
to MacIntyre’s thought. Since the 1990s MacIntyre’s moral philosophy was an
important resource for him when he addresses contemporary moral problems. In
“Differences between Confucian Virtue Ethics and MacIntyre’s Aristotelianism Virtue
Ethics”, Wan Junren initiated a conversation with MacIntyre on the differences
between Confucianism’s and MacIntyre’s understandings of virtue ethics. MacIntyre
responded positively. Wan Junren often mentioned MacIntyre’s moral philosophy in
essays and books, and has used MacIntyre’s moral philosophy to justify some of his
own conclusions.1
3.
Virtue Ethics
Most of the Chinese scholars who study MacIntyre’s moral philosophy pay more
attention to his virtue ethics, and regard him as one of the important philosophers in
the field of virtue ethics. Many of them concentrate on After Virtue. There are many
such papers and articles.
In her “Introduction to MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics”, Wang Jinyi deals with the
relationship between Virtue ethics and Normative ethics; with MacIntyre’s emphasis
on the incomensurability, with the background of virtue ethics, and the content of
virtue ethics. In the final part of her dissertation, she discuss the possibility of virtue
ethics in contemporary society. From her point of view, MacIntyre’s attitude to return
to the tradition of Aristotle resembes modern Neo-Confucianism and cannot succeed.
1
There were many such kinds of articles, such as: “The Justification of the Basis of Modern Society:
the Moral Problems in the operation of the Modernization of China”, Journal of Peking University
(Philosophy and Social Science), 1996, No.2, pp4-15; “Between and Outside of Virtue Ethics and
Normative Ethics, Chinese Sholars Abroad, 1995, No.12, pp32-33. “Several Theory Problems on
Virtue Ethics”, Morality and Civilization, 2008, No.3, pp17-26. “The Contemporary Meaning of
Virtue Ethics: Focus on MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics”, Social Science Frontier, 2008, No.5. pp225-235.
In several of his books,
Wan Junren has discussed MacIntyre ’s moral philosophy, including
Comparison and Analysis: the Modern Version of Chinese and Western Ethics ; The Discourse of
Modern Ethics; Seeking Universal Ethics.
3
In 2008, Wan Junren published two papers on MacIntyre’s virtue ethics, “Several
Theoretical Problems on Virtue Ethics” and “The Contemporary Meaning of Virtue
Ethics: Focus on MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics”. Li Yitian published a book called Study
of Contemporary Virtue Ethics: Justification of Diversity in Ethics. In this book, he
focused on MacIntyre’s moral philosophy and regarded MacIntyre as the most
important philosopher in the development of virtue ethics.
In “The Renaissance of Western Virtue Ethics”, Sun Junheng discussed the
emergence, course and content of virtue ethics, and again focusing on MacIntyre’s
virtue ethics. There have also been some Ph.D and Master’s dissertations concerned
with MacIntyre’s virtue ethics, such as: “To Reconstruct Virtue Ethics with the
Method of Teleology: Study on MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics”; “On the Study of
MacIntyre’s Virtue Ethics”, and “Criticism and Pursuit: Research on MacIntyre’s
Virtue Ethics”. In his book Study on Virtue Ethics, Wang Guoyin pointed out some
limitations of MacIntyre’s virtue ethics.
4. MacIntyre’s Critiques of Western Moral Philosophy
MacIntyre’s critique of contemporary Western moral philosophy has attracted
many scholars’ attention. In The Road to Pursue Virtue: MacIntyre’s Reflections on
the Dilemma of Contemporary Western Moral Philosophy,
Qin Yuecun considered
MacIntyre’s reflections on contemporary western moral philosophy, and his attempts
to solve problems of moral crisis. From her point of view, history has became
fragmented, tradition fractured, past culture and community life destroyed by
modernity. Returning to the traditional virtues cannot solve our present problems, and
reconstructing the life of virtue ethics is pointless. According to
Qin, what is
important in the reconstruction of moral philosophy is the conflict between
individualism and moral consensus. To solve this problem we need to look to Marx’s
practical philosophy.
philosophy.
1
1
Qin also studied some other perspectives on MacIntyre’s moral
In Self, Others and Morality, Xu Xiangdong
1
had discussed
“The Dimension of Metaphysics: Ethics cannot be Possible without that Dimension ”, Academic
Exchange, 2005, No.4, pp26-31. In this essay,
Qin discussed the metaphysical foundations of
4
MacIntyre’s critique of contemporary western moral philosophy. I myself wrote a
Master’s dissertation focused on MacIntyre’s critique of contemporary western
philosophy. In that dissertation, I discussed the following topics: MacIntyre’s critique
of emotivism, modernity, the Enlightenment Project, and modern moral enquiry.
In “Aristotle or Nietzsche: MacIntyre’s Critique of Modern Moral Philosophy”,
Yao Dazhi2 analysed MacIntyre’s justification for his view of the failure of the
Enlightenment Project, argued that the way out of the dilemmas of contemporary
moral philosophy which MacIntyre had suggested was neither modern nor
postmodern, but premodern.3
Of course, there are numerous scholars who think contemporary moral
philosophy is flourishing, and MacIntyre’s critique are unjustified. And that any
returning to tradition would be foolish and impossible.
5. MacIntyre’s Political Philosophy
The study of MacIntyre’s political philosophy has been mainly concerned with
communitarianism. Although MacIntyre has criticized liberalism, and many scholars
regard MacIntyre as the main representative of communitarianism, MacIntyre himself
does not regard himself as a communitarian. In “Small Communitarianism: Study on
MacIntyre’s
Communitarianism”,
Yao
Dazhi
made
a
distinction
between
communitarianism as such and small communitarianism, and regarded MacIntyre’s
MacIntyre’s moral philosophy; “MacIntyre’s Perspectives of Practice and the Meaning of Practice ”,
Northern Forum, 2005, No.4, pp122-125; in this essay, she evaluated MacIntyre’s theory of practice
and its contemporary meaning. “MacIntyre’s critique of contemporary western societies ’ morality”,
Academic Exchange, 2007, No.2, pp5-9. “After Virtue and the Surpassing of Civil Society ”, Zhejiang
Academic Journal, 2007, No.1, pp53-56. “The New Development of MacIntyre’s After Virtue”,
Philosophical Trends, 2008, No.6, pp68-72.
1
Xu used to teach at Philosophy Department of Peking University, and he is one of the best scholars
of Western moral philosophy in China. He teaches at Z hejiang University right now.
2
Yao used to be the Dean of department of Philosophy at Jilin University. He is well known in the
field of political philosophy.
3
Yao Dazhi had also published some other essays on MacIntyre ’s study.
5
thought as a kind of small communitarianism. In “Virtue Prior to Right: an
Interpretation of the Ethics of Communitarianism”, Kou Dongliang interpreted
MacIntyre’s understanding of the self as constituted by its relationship to community.
In “Communitarianism’s Understandings about Self: Comments on the Debate
between Communitarianism and New Liberalism”, Ying Qi discussed MacIntyre’s
conception of the self in term of narrative, arguing that the self is not only the subject
of narrative, but also the object of narrative. In “The Fusion of Justice and Virtue: On
the Study of MacIntyre’s Theory of Justice”, Liu Guangbiao has given an account of
MacIntyre’s theory of justice.
6. MacIntyre’s Method of Moral Enquiry
In Going out of the Dilemma of Ethics: the Study of MacIntyre’s Moral
Philosophy and Marx’s Moral Philosophy, Gao Guoxi had already provided in
“Reflections on the Methods of MacIntyre’s Moral Enquiry,” Wang Xiangping
portrayed MacIntyre’s method in moral philosophy as a new historical analysis. In
“Alasdair MacIntyre’s Historicism: Three Different Version”, Yao Dazhi distinguished
MacIntyre’s method from historicism, arguing that MacIntyre needed to solve the
problems posed by moral relativism.
7. MacIntyre’s Metaphysics of Morality
In “The Inspiration of Independence to Moral Philosophy: Study on MacIntyre’s
Moral Philosophy”, Hu Juan examined MacIntyre’s book Dependent Rational
Animals. She was mainly concerned with his conception of the independence of
rational agency and his new position on the metaphysical status of human being.
Gong Qun has also done some work in this area. He was the first to introduce
Dependent Rational Animals to China, and has written two papers on it.
8. MacIntyre’s Account of Rationality
In his “Study on MacIntyre’s Thoughts of Rationality”, Xie Lisheng concentrated
on the concept of rationality, pointing to the tension between MacIntyre’s moral
philosophy and the issues posed by moral relativism, and he argued that MacIntyre is
unable to solve the problem of moral relativism, something that he also argued in his
discussion of dependence in “Dependence: the Theory of Destiny of MacIntyre’s
6
Moral Philosophy”.
9. The Problem of Moral Relativism
In Whose Justice? Which Rationality? MacIntyre attempted to solve the problem
of moral relativism, but in China and elsewhere many scholars have argued that he
failed: From Chinese Culture to Modernity: Change of Paradigm, Shi Yuankang,
Liberalism, Social Contract Theory and Political Defence, Xu Xiangdong,
Moving
toward Moral Objectivity: Study on Hare’s Moral Philosophy, Yang Zhihua. Yang
Zhihua compared MacIntyre’s and Hare’s approaches to the problem of moral
relativism, arguing that MacIntyre’s virtue ethics could not and Hare’s metaethics
could solve the problem of moral relativism. There were also scholars who denied that
MacIntyre was a moral relativist. And I myself wrote a Ph.D dissertation on this, in
which I argued that MacIntyre was not a moral relativist. In “Several Questions on
Virtue Ethics”, Wan Junren discussed the relationship between MacIntyre’s virtue
ethics and moral relativism, making a distinction between moral relativity and moral
relativism. Although MacIntyre had emphasized moral relativity, this did not mean
that he was a moral relativist.
There are some other perspectives on the study of MacIntyre’s moral philosophy,
such as those concerned with the relationship between MacIntyre’s moral philosophy
and Marxism. From the nine perspectives I have mentioned, we can see that scholars
in China have studied almost all of MacIntyre’s moral philosophy in its different
aspects .
From my summary, it is clear that the study of MacIntyre in China is broad,1 and
that many scholars have done an excellent job. Essays on MacIntyre’s moral
philosophy are still appearing. In 2004, if one searched MacIntyre as a keyword in
1
There are many scholars teaching MacIntyre’s moral philosophy in class. As far as I know, Tang
Wenming used to have a seminar at Tsinghua University on MacIntyre ’s After Virtue. Chen Jiaying
used to have seminar on After Virtue at East China Noram University. Professors at Pek ing University,
Renmin University, Jilin University, Lanzhou University, and Northwest Normal University all have
seminars or classes talking about MacIntyre’s moral philosophy. Some of the universities in China
even used MacIntyre’s A Short History of Ethic as a textbook on the history of western ethics.
7
CNKI ( Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, which is the biggest database for
academic essays in China), one will find more than one hundred essays. In September,
3rd,2013, one can find about five hundred and sixty two essays. In April 23rd ,2014,
one can find about five hundred and eighty nine essays. Of course, there are some
articles published in some journals which are not included in CNKI. There are still
however aspects of MacIntyre’s moral philosophy we need to be studied, and there are
also misunderstandings of MacIntyre’s thought.
Why do the Chinese scholars pay so much attentions to MacIntyre’s thought?
From my point of view, there are at least four reasons.
Firstly, MacIntyre’s moral philosophy has had significant influence in the
development of Western moral philosophy in the 20th century. MacIntyre is an
important scholars in contemporary decade, and he has made suitable contributions to
the development of moral philosophy. Some Chinese scholars have seen signs of a
changing paradigm in moral philosophy.
Secondly, MacIntyre has challenged the dominant trends in contemporary moral
philosophy. In After Virtue, MacIntyre identified the disorder of present day morality,
criticizing the discourse of modern moral philosophy, and promoting a change of
focus from meta ethics to virtue ethics, and becoming the turning point of
contemporary moral philosophy. If Chinese scholars want to know about the
development of contemporary moral philosophy, they must study MacIntyre’s moral
philosophy and responsed to what MacIntyre has said about modern morality and
modern moral problems.
Thirdly, the study of MacIntyre’s moral philosophy has important
implications for Chinese scholars. Since the 1980s, how to build a system of
modern moral philosophy has been the main focus for Chinese moral
philosophers. After the New China was founded since 1949, and especially
after the Great Cultural Revolution in 1966, China had destroyed the old
tradition which had lasted for more than 2000 years. How to continue our
tradition and how to build our new system of morality are the most importa nt
questions rised to Chinese scholars. However, where Chinese scholars discuss
how to build a modern moral philosophy, MacIntyre has criticized modernity
itself and any moral philosophy that is specially modern. If we admit that the
development of Western and Chinese history has some similarities, we must
8
realize that what MacIntyre had criticized in modern moral philosophy will
tend to reappear in our way of building a modern moral philosophy.
MacIntyre’s criticize of western modern moral philosophy provide a mirror in
which are reflected the problems we will face in building a new system of
morality.
In the way about how to build a new system of morality and how
to deal with our tradition, Chinese scholars need to learn from MacIntyre ’s
insights.
Fourthly, there are some similarities between MacIntyre’s thought and
Chinese thought. In the first place, MacIntyre’s thought is influenced by
Marxism and he still regards Marxism as one of his recourses. In China, there
are many scholars who study Marxism and regard Marx’s philosophy as one of
the most important philosophies in China. There are some Chinese
philosophers study MacIntyre’s interpretation of Marxism. In the second place,
MacIntyre emphasizes history, tradition and community in his thought,
conceptions which are widely accepted by Chinese philosophers. China is
famous for a long history and tradition, and how to deal with their long history
and tradition is still a problem in China nowadays. Chinese scholars in the
past have paid much attention to community too, especially in the thought of
Confucianism. Since there are those similarities, it is easy for Chinese
scholars to take an interest in MacIntyre’s thought.
From what I have discussed above, It is easy to see that Chinese scholars need to
learn from MacIntyre’s moral philosophy. The study of his thought needs to be
continued. What Chinese scolars have studied so far about MacIntyre’s thought is still
not enough.
9