Alasdair Macintyre virtue ethics

Criticised meta-ethics by saying we have been left in a moral vacuum. Macintyre reasoned that instead of debating right and wrong, morality should be approached historically.

Morality gone?
Primarily Macintyre argues that morality has lost its way. He suggests that people no longer look at what is right rather what is less wrong. People have to choose to abandon their principles or allow harm to come to others. This is a tough choice that quite simply people cannot be bothered to make. In this sense morality has lost its way.

Look at History!
Macintyre urges people to get involved with the history of ethics before looking at recent ethical theories. He believed that understanding the historical context of ethics is fundamental prior to application You need to appreciate the 'narrative context' (seeing the development of ethics as a story).

How do you feel about this statement, do you agree with abortion?
A girl has become pregnant and had an abortion

Why find out the context?

if we are talking about an ethical issue, such as the girlwho became pregnant and had an abortion, we have to find out about the context of the issue prior to saying In this particular case, the Nicaraguan 9-year old girl came from a Catholic country where abortion is illegal in all circumstances. The doctors who carried out the abortion were condemned by the Church, and excommunicated themselves Following this, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans excommunicated themselves from the church.

So
Looking at the context of the ethical dilemma has allowed us to see a clearer picture and realise we were too quick to judge without knowing all the facts.
Finding out about the context of an issue helps us understand the decisions people make.

This is why different societies and cultures have differing moral standards
Virtues differ in each country and society through time progression. Macintyre suggests that virtues are dependent on solving the problems of various people and the context of the society.

 The Homeric virtues included physical strength, courage, cunning and friendship. In small tribal communities, cunning, strength, even ruthlessness may be virtuous. As villages developed into large cities, these virtues changed. The Athenian virtues included Justice and Temperance, and physical strength was no longer so important. Whereas cunning used to be prized, more value would now be put on Wisdom, the sort of understanding of human behaviour that could navigate through complex conflicts that might arise with so many people living together

 MacIntyre calls the virtues or qualities of character 'internal goods' He says we also place value on 'external goods' . Aristotle would have agreed here .

To summarise Macintyre
he says that we value different qualities of character, practices and physical things, and that by understanding historical and social context, we can understand ethical issues that arise.