MacIntyre, Alasdair

"Moral discourse requires shared standards of excellence and a commitment to a common good."

"Traditions contain resources for the critique of contemporary society."

"The virtues cannot be understood as a list of isolated character traits but must be grasped as a unified whole."

"Human flourishing is not a subjective matter of preference satisfaction but involves living according to virtue."

"A tradition is a conversation about fundamental questions, a conversation in which we are participants."

"The narrative of my life must be integrated with the narratives of others."

"Moral reasoning requires that we understand ourselves within a context of practices and traditions."

"The concept of a practice as a cooperative human activity is central to understanding virtue and excellence."

"We become rational agents through apprenticeship in the traditions and practices of our communities."

"Modern individualism mistakenly assumes that the individual can determine values independently of tradition."

"The internal goods of a practice define what counts as excellence in that practice."

"Tradition is not the enemy of reason but the medium within which human reasoning occurs."

"To lack a narrative understanding of one's own life is to be deprived of a basic human capacity."

"Practices are sustained by virtues of character that cannot be reduced to technical competence."

"The goods of human life are not arbitrary preferences but real possibilities for human flourishing."

"Justice is never merely procedural but always involves substantive judgments about the common good."

"We inherit our moral vocabularies and must either sustain or transform the traditions they embody."

"The virtues are context-dependent; what counts as virtue varies across different practices and traditions."

"Modern moral language is often inadequate because it has been severed from the frameworks that gave it meaning."

"A practice achieves its goods through the development of character and the cultivation of excellence."

"The concept of a human life as a narrative unity provides a framework for understanding moral development."

"Traditions are not static but living realities that develop and change through the work of their practitioners."

"To understand virtue is to understand it in relation to the human telos, the proper end of human life."

"Modern liberal theory fails to account for the ways in which human identity is constituted by tradition."

"The internal goods of a practice cannot be separated from the virtues that sustain that practice."

"We are narrative creatures whose identities are constructed through the stories we tell and live."

"Justice within a community requires a shared understanding of the common good."

"Moral disagreement in modernity reflects deeper disagreements about the nature and telos of human life."

"A practice is a human activity governed by internal standards of excellence."

"The virtues enable us to achieve the goods internal to human practices and communities."