Virtue in Rousseau's ethics (Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Alasdair MacIntyre)

This dissertation is a critical examination of Alasdair MacIntyre's influential work, After Virtue. MacIntyre argues that many of the problems of contemporary conceptions of ethics stem from an abandonment of an Aristotelian system based on teleology. The result of this abandonment is an emotivist culture that is unable to find secure foundations for any ethical claim. Central to MacIntyre's argument is the claim that the predecessor culture, the enlightenment, intentionally discarded a teleological framework. However, in their efforts to form ethical systems that are independent of any conception of “man as he ought to be,” the enlightenment thinkers gave themselves an impossible task according to MacIntyre.; My goal in this dissertation is to show that the strict dichotomy that MacIntyre makes between ancient and modern ethics oversimplifies the western philosophical tradition. In order to accomplish this goal, I examine an enlightenment thinker who is scarcely mentioned at all in After Virtue: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I argue that Rousseau provides a rich account of virtue, one that is not divorced from a concept of the human being's goal or end. I proceed in five chapters. First, I explore several of Rousseau's major works in order to form a comprehensive understanding of his account of virtue. In chapter two, I contrast Rousseau with Aristotle, and explore the major difference between them regarding the natural sociability of human beings. In the third chapter, I continue with the discussion of Aristotle and Rousseau, and argue that their respective accounts of the virtues share many important similarities. In chapter four, I examine the influence of Rousseau on the ethics of Kant, whom MacIntyre discusses at length in his criticism of the enlightenment. The goal here is to show that Rousseau cannot simply be excluded from a meaningful account of the enlightenment. In the final chapter, I formally address After Virtue, and argue that Rousseau is not subject to the criticisms of the enlightenment that MacIntyre puts forth.