Dependence-the Retreating Of Macintyre's Virtue Ethics

Alasdair MacIntyre's virtue ethics has great influence.Today,when it comes to MacIntyre's virtue ethics,the research focus is still on his main work,After Virtue.However,due to the awareness of the problem in his theory of virtue,in his later works,MacIntyre continued to expand his theory of virtue,especially in his book Dependent Rational Animals-Why Human Beings Need Virtue,relying on his virtue theory resorting to the human beings' dependence.In his After Virtue,MacIntyre put forward the virtue theory and community theory in the position of Aristotle,but ignores the biology of Aristotle.However,the dependence which MacIntyre turns to is not just the restatament of Aristotle.MacIntyre points out that human being born weak,in the process of growing up human beings constantly experiences sufferings,Human beings' vulnerability leads to dependence on others.If people want to survive,they need to rely on each other.People's vulnerability and dependence is a problem that any kind of moral traditions have to face.People depend on others in most of their life time,in order to survive,they need to form a mutually dependent relationship.And the role of virtue is to make human beings thrive.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is the introduction,explaining the background;The second part is the main content of MacIntyre's early stage theory of virtue and its defects,the problem "Is what reality is reasonable?" is the key of this part;The third part is the content of the book Dependent Rational Animals-Why Human Beings Need Virtue,and how dependence become to be the basis of MacIntyre's theory of virtue;The fourth part questions MacIntyre on that he regard dependence as the fulcrum of his theory,and in the end,in my opinion,virtue and norms can be unified,which may make up for the defects of MacIntyre's theory.