Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre, born January 12, 1929, in Glasgow and died May 21, 2025, was a Scottish-American philosopher and one of the most important figures in contemporary moral philosophy. He is especially known for reviving virtue ethics and reinterpreting the thought of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in the contemporary world. News of his death at the age of 96 was reported in sources such as The Guardian.

MacIntyre completed his education at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Manchester, and began teaching philosophy in the 1950s. He taught at major universities including Oxford, Princeton, Brandeis, Boston, Duke, and Notre Dame, and for many years was an influential figure in moral philosophy, political philosophy, and the history of ideas in the English-speaking world.

MacIntyre's primary fame rests on his book After Virtue, a work in which he examines the crisis of moral language in the modern world and emphasizes the importance of tradition, virtue, the narrative of life, and community in the formation of morality. Unlike many analytic philosophers, he did not understand morality as separate from history, culture, and the way of life of human beings.

MacIntyre's works are of great importance to researchers in philosophy, the humanities, theology, and political thought. He sought to show that moral questions cannot be resolved by abstract rules alone, but depend on intellectual traditions, cultural institutions, and the picture one has of the good life.