Ethics Under Capital: MacIntyre, Communication, and the Culture Wars

Description

We in the West are living in the midst of a deadly culture war. Our rival worldviews clash with increasing violence in the public arena, culminating in deadly riots and mass shootings. A fragmented left now confronts a resurgent and reactionary right, which threatens to reverse decades of social progress. Commentators have declared that we live in a "post-truth world," one dominated by online trolls and conspiracy theorists. How did we arrive at this cultural crisis? How do we respond? This book speaks to this critical moment through a new reading of the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Over thirty years ago, MacIntyre predicted the coming of a new Dark Ages. The premise of this book is that MacIntyre was right all along. It presents his diagnosis of our cultural crisis. It further presents his answer to the challenge of public reasoning without foundations. Pitting him against John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and Chantal Mouffe, Ethics Under Capital argues that MacIntyre offers hope for a critical democratic politics in the face of the culture wars.

Jason Hannan is Associate Professor in the Department of Rhetoric & Communication at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. His books include Philosophical Profiles in the Theory of Communication (2012) and Truth in the Public Sphere (2016).

[A] welcome addition to the growing body of work on MacIntyre from a left perspective. * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books * In our confused time of the culture wars, the ethical foundations of our lives are fatally weakened, caught in the deadly interplay between utilitarianism, relativism, religious fundamentalism, and empty moralist absolutism. Is there a way out of this new Dark Age? Jason Hannan makes a forceful case for the renewed relevance of Alasdair MacIntyre's ethics of the virtues, grounded in a common way of life. Our age of extremes calls for a return to the Aristotelian tradition. What makes Hannan's book especially attractive is his insistence on the anti-capitalist edge of MacIntyre's thought. Ethics Under Capital is a book for everyone in search of a reliable compass in a stormy sea. * Slavoj Zizek, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, and Professor at the Institute of Sociology, Ljubljana, Slovenia * If you want a quick diagnosis of the present distress and a strong suggestion for a solution, read this book. Its analysis of ethics under capital is as limpid and refreshing as stream water from a glacier melt. Jason Hannan's restorative reading of a contrarian thinker offers a duet of sanity for a world gone mad. * John Durham Peters, Maria Rosa Menocal Professor of English, Yale University, USA * Rather than another attempt to explain Alasdair MacIntyre's philosophy, Jason Hannan uses it to interrogate the world of contemporary politics and suggest how it might be changed. Ever wondered what Macintyre can teach us about how to respond to the likes of 4Chan and the Alt-Right? This is the book for you. * Neil Davidson, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK *