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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Ethics and Political Philosophy

Selected Works

Aristotelian Critical Theory

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Toward A Radical Integral Humanism: Macintyre’S Continuing Marxism, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Toward A Radical Integral Humanism: Macintyre’S Continuing Marxism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

I argue that we must read Alasdair MacIntyre’s mature work through a Marxist lens. I begin by discussing his argument that we must choose which God to worship on principles of justice, which, it turns out, are ones given to us by God. I contend that this argument entails that we must see Mac- Intyre’s early Marxist commitments as given to him by God, and, therefore, that he has never abandoned them in his turn to Thomistic-Aristotelianism. I examine his reading of Marx, with its emphasis on the concept of alienation as a Christian concept, and explain how this reading …


Reason, Tradition, And The Good: Alasdair Macintyre's Reason Of Tradition And Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Reason, Tradition, And The Good: Alasdair Macintyre's Reason Of Tradition And Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

In Reason, Tradition, and the Good, Jeffery L. Nicholas addresses the failure of reason in modernity to bring about a just society, a society in which people can attain fulfillment. Developing the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Nicholas argues that we rely too heavily on a conception of rationality that is divorced from tradition and, therefore, incapable of judging ends. Without the ability to judge ends, we cannot engage in debate about the good life or the proper goods that we as individuals and as a society should pursue. Nicholas claims that the project of enlightenment—defined as the promotion …


Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

This paper examines two practices – the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons – to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology – Commodity Fetishism and Scientism – and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends …


Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

I argue that Aristotle could not be a fore-runner to liberalism, because his view of humanity is that human beings are constituted by a community and achieve self-fulfillment only as so constituted. Thus, Aristotle endorses a unique position that defends the freedom and self-development of the individual within the parameters of a social order.


Toward A Radical Integral Humanism: Macintyre’S Continuing Marxism, Jeffery L. Nicholas Jan 2014

Toward A Radical Integral Humanism: Macintyre’S Continuing Marxism, Jeffery L. Nicholas

Jeffery L Nicholas

I argue that we must read Alasdair MacIntyre’s mature work through a Marxist lens. I begin by discussing his argument that we must choose which God to worship on principles of justice, which, it turns out, are ones given to us by God. I contend that this argument entails that we must see Mac- Intyre’s early Marxist commitments as given to him by God, and, therefore, that he has never abandoned them in his turn to Thomistic-Aristotelianism. I examine his reading of Marx, with its emphasis on the concept of alienation as a Christian concept, and explain how this reading …


Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery L. Nicholas Jan 2008

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery L. Nicholas

Jeffery L Nicholas

This paper examines two practices – the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons – to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology – Commodity Fetishism and Scientism – and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends …


Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery L. Nicholas Jan 2003

Rights, Individualism, Community: Aristotle And The Communitarian-Liberalism Debate, Jeffery L. Nicholas

Jeffery L Nicholas

I argue that Aristotle could not be a fore-runner to liberalism, because his view of humanity is that human beings are constituted by a community and achieve self-fulfillment only as so constituted. Thus, Aristotle endorses a unique position that defends the freedom and self-development of the individual within the parameters of a social order.