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A Short History of Ethics Essay examples

Decent Essays

In chapters three and four of A Short History of Ethics, Alastair MacIntyre makes a clear distinction between two philosophical doctrines at loggerheads: the Sophists and Socrates. The Sophistic amalgam of personal success, lust and power is constantly interrogated by an interlocutor in an endless plight to reveal Sophistic ignorance, fruitless desires and the right to universal justice. MacIntyre identifies the codes of both parties, and further complements the debate with historic examples to conclude the social success (or lack thereof) and persuasion of both sides.
MacIntyre begins by outlining the general amalgam of Sophistic theory: success. The areté (virtue) of a Sophist is to be a successful citizen through conforming to the …show more content…

He then reasons that the Sophists believe in a non-moral conventional man; a Homeric persona who is shifted from one era of social acceptance to another (17). MacIntyre also disputes the criteria with which one can be “natural” and offers the second flaw: To be identified as selfish, unselfish, aggressive, and so on, one must be compared to the norms of the current society; or in other words, one must be described by socially established terminology (18). Therefore, what was to be pre-social/natural actually maintains some form of social likeness to allow for the comparison (or contrast).
Sophistic theology is fed only by relativism. This personal truth confuses the difference between philosophy and the actions of a hypothetical natural man. Philosophy, being the quest for the universal truth, involves the philosopher remaining outside of society, yet fully understanding and questioning the social order. However, Sophism fails to distinguish the difference between this philosophical “standing out” from the way a natural man would act. MacIntyre follows up with the portrayal in Thrasymachean guise, “The wolf has to wear the sheep’s clothing of the conventional moral values” (18). Sophism accepts this con man behaviour to be moral, although the motives are solely power and pleasure. With this, MacIntyre reveals that the rhetoric of the Sophist must appease the interests of the public.
Socrates’ perspectives in

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