Evaluating MacIntyre’s “Nietzsche or Aristotle” Argument

Abstract

The primary focus of this article is to explain how MacIntyre, as part of his project of the critique of modern morality, treats Nietzsche and his genealogical explorations of morality, and how adequate his interpretation is. This article includes an introductory elucidation of his larger project of what he himself rightly calls as disquieting and quieting suggestions (MacIntyre 2011: ch.II). This would enable us to situate our specific problem in a larger and meaningful context and make it more intelligible. It will also explain how MacIntyre places Nietzsche within his own critical endeavor to make a general claim on the enlightenment project of moral philosophy, so that he can make a radical disjunction between the Nietzschean and Aristotelian morality. It follows how MacIntyre interprets certain Nietzschean terms like “will to power” and “Ubermensch” to fit his essential articulation of Nietzsche’s moral theory as a culmination of enlightenment project of individualistic morality and ‘Nietzschean emotivism’. Our aim is to show that MacIntyre’s emotivistic interpretation of Nietzsche is not right; however, despite the recent attempts to place Nietzsche in the virtue ethics camp alongside with Aristotle, MacIntyre has been right to present Nietzsche and Aristotle as polar opposites.

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