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The contribution to contemporary philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre is enormous. His writings on ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of the social sciences and the history of philosophy have established him as one of the philosophical giants of the last fifty years

Intro -- Title Page -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography -- Chapter 2: MacIntyre and Theology -- Chapter 3: MacIntyre and Thomism -- Chapter 4: MacIntyre and Moral Philosophy -- Chapter 5: MacIntyre and Classical Philosophy -- Chapter 6: MacIntyre and Political Philosophy -- Chapter 7: MacIntyre and Marxism -- Chapter 8: MacIntyre and Frankfurt School Critical Theory -- Chapter 9: MacIntyre and Communication -- Chapter 10: MacIntyre and Business Ethics -- Chapter 11: MacIntyre and Sociology -- Chapter 12: MacIntyre and Education -- Chapter 13: MacIntyre and Law -- Chapter 14: MacIntyre and Therapeutic Method.

Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the most controversial philosophers and social theorists of our time. He opposes liberalism and postmodernism with the teleological arguments of an updated Thomistic Aristotelianism. It is this tradition, he claims, which presents the best theory so far about the nature of rationality, morality and politics. This is the first Reader of MacIntyre's work

Politics : impoverished lives. The disappointments of socialism and communism ; From Marxism to communitarianism? ; A new conservatism -- Philosophy : collective reasoning. The moral critique of Stalinism ; moral life and socially established practices ; The philosophy of tradition -- Theology : the community of believers. Are wars of religion as dangerous as secularization? ; The absence of liberal spirituality ; The theology of the tradition.

Alasdair MacIntyre is generally regarded as the most interesting, influential, and provocative figure in moral philosophy today. He is a strong critic of the cruder forms of liberalism which he takes to be responsible for confusion of contemporary moral and political culture. MacIntyre focuses upon three `characters', each of which he takes to be emblematic of our age: the Aesthete, the Therapist and the Manager. A `character' is a fusion of a specific role with a specific personality type in such a way that it emphasizes and celebrates the moral ideas of a particular culture. MacIntyre takes modern `characters' to reflect the doctrine of emotivism which holds that moral discussions are no more than attempts by one party to alter the preferences and feelings of another party so that they accord with their own. Emotivism removes the possibility of treating people as ends, as rational beings; moral debate, from this perspective, is fundamentally manipulative. The Aesthete treats other people as a means to achieve his/her own ends—the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of boredom; the Therapist is concerned with the technique of the treatment of individuals, not the values of the goals they pursue; and the Manager—the focus of this article—is exclusively concerned with the pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness, leaving the task of fixing purpose and evaluating goals to others. All three `characters' eschew moral debate regarding questions of ends as beyond systematic rational assessment. It is this notion of `character' that is the starting point for this article. If MacIntyre is correct and the Manager is one of the key `characters' of our times, there ought to be more debate amongst those of us concerned with organizations. The purpose of this article is to outline MacIntyre's argument, to indicate some of the support it commands in the literature of organizational behaviour and to pass comment upon both the ideas and the literature.