After Virtue After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre. Wikipedia has a very useful synopsis (permalink as accessed Dec 9 2008). Citations refer to the 1984 second edition, ISBN 0268006113. Chapter Summary A note and disclaimer about the chapter summary: This summary is intended only to supplement an actual reading of the text. It is not sufficient in and of itself to understand MacIntyre's theory without having read the book, and even having read it, this guide is not sufficient to understand it in its entirety. A necessary amount of detail and nuance was eliminated in order to create the guide. Its intended purpose is to aid in comprehension of this complex but profoundly significant work during and after the process of reading it. I would suggest reading the synopsis of each chapter after reading the chapter. The goal is to present the outline of MacIntyre's claims and arguments with only a minimal gloss on the justifying evidence at each point. Thus, hopefully, the guide should prove reasonably sufficient to help a reader retain the crucial parts of MacIntyre's argument, and the text can be returned to for a full justification. It is easy to get bogged down in this book, but just take your time. No portion of his argument can be fully understood without understanding the whole— nevertheless, certain chapters deserve particular attention: Chapters 1-5, 9, 14, and 15. Enjoy. —Ari Schulman (
[email protected]), Dec 9 2008 Chapter 1. A Disquieting Suggestion MacIntyre imagines a world in which the natural sciences "suffer the effects of a catastrophe": the public turns against science and destroys scientific knowledge, but later recants and revives science (1).