A dialética das tradições de pesquisa de Alasdair Macintyre

Abstract

Known mainly for his rescue of Aristotelian-inspired virtue ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre is responsible for the creation of a sophisticated theory of rationality and the conflict between rival perspectives, built on an understanding of the concept of traditions of enquiry. MacIntyre's view is clearly inspired on discussions from the philosophy of science, with which it shows important points of convergence, but it strays away from them in some fundamental issues, presenting itself as a peculiar kind of dialectics of traditions of rational enquiry, wich by itself presents a wider scope than that of the traditional theories of science. Such traditions replace, for MacIntyre, units exhibited in current debates, such as theories, paradigms, research programs, and conceptual schemes. Even although he deals with themes such as epistemic crises and transitions between perspectives, MacIntyre's emphasis is rather on the conflict, sometimes continuous, between rival traditions, which allows for a distinctive approach in the face of problems such as that of epistemic progress. The general lines of the MacIntyrean program are here shown, and a special emphasis is put on its approximations and divergences relatively to the canons of the aforementioned discussions.