A study in the ethics of Kant and MacIntyre

In this brief essay, I intend to analyze, and contrast, two ethics. The ethics of Immanuel Kant, philosopher of the 18th century, and the ethics of the AristotelianThomist Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the most distinguished moral philosophers of our days. Thus, I will contrast formalism with teleology; acting out of duty and being virtuous. For Kant, knowledge of metaphysics is not possible. Man knows 27 phenomena; he knows what his structure of perception allows him to know. Evidently, Kant does not fall into subjectivism – we all have the same structure of knowledge. Scientific knowledge is, therefore, valid knowledge, which results from a synthesis process operated by the transcendental subject. For the Thomist philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, there is a telos, a purpose for life. Contrary to what happens with Immanuel Kant's philosophy of knowledge, it is not the subject that unifies reality. Unity is organic, it is organized; she is real. The subject thus has the ability – which necessarily goes beyond his/our understanding – to peer into the essence of an object. Human beings have a superior inclination, and the world is moved by the love of God. God acts according to a final cause, and this drift of love results from a typically human animality, which can only be accepted naturally. Bearing in mind that there are no great ideas that do not imply a certain vision of social order, we will reflect on the social and political visions that can only result from these two distinct ways of thinking.