Macintyre's critical approach to the foundations of liberalism

The present paper is methodologically rooted in the principle that all socio-political theories are based on a specific conception of man’s nature. As a result, I will try to depict the image of a “liberal man” as reflected in Macintyre's works, which form the foundation of socio-political theories. A new conception of reason gradually prevailed from the 17th century onward, on the basis of which, without recourse to any theory, man can communicate with the real world, acquire knowledge of it, and codify universal rules about it. Accordingly, concepts such as faculty, actuality, nature, and finality were considered as extirpated concepts of scholastic philosophy. Therefore, the teleological approach to the nature of man was marginalized and the ground was prepared for the emergence of individuality. With the rejection of the teleological approach to ethics and with respect to the conceptual independence ethics gradually gained, the rational justification of ethics prevailed, but, with the rejection of a teleological understanding of man’s nature, emotionalist teachings prevailed in the modern society, on the basis of which it is the individual’s preferences that becomes valuable and ethical.