Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and the Demise of Naturalism: Reunifying Political Theory and Social Science

155 Pages·2016·1.04 MB·English

by  Jason Blakely

AlAsdAir MAc intyre, chArles tAylor,
And the deMise of nAturAlisM

AlAsdAir MAc intyre,
chArles tAylor,
And the deMise
of nAturAlisM
Reunifying Political Theory and Social Science
JAson BlAkely
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress .nd .edu
Copyright © 2016 by the University of Notre Dame
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Blakely, Jason, 1980– author.
Title: Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and the demise of naturalism : reunifying
political theory and social science / Jason Blakely.
Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016032990 (print) | LCCN 2016033476 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780268100643 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268100640 (hardcover :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268100667 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268100674 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Naturalism. | Political science—Philosophy. | Social sciences. |
MacIntyre, Alasdair C. | Taylor, Charles, 1931–
Classification: LCC B828.2 .B53 2016 (print) | LCC B828.2 (ebook) |
DDC 146—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032990
ISBN 9780268100667
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence
of Paper).
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party
vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability
issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [email protected].
To my first teachers— my parents

c o n t e n t s
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Problem of Superstition
and the Divorce of Political Theory
from Social Science 1
CHAPTeR 1 The Deeper Sources of the Breakup:
The Rise of “Naturalism” in Philosophy,
Social Science, and Politics 7
CHAPTeR 2 The First British New Left’s Rebellion
against Naturalism 24
CHAPTeR 3 Analytic Philosophy as a Weapon
for Attacking Naturalism 38
CHAPTeR 4 Inspiring a New Social Science: Aristotle
and Heidegger 60
CHAPTeR 5 Overcoming Value- Neutrality in
the Social Sciences 75
CHAPTeR 6 The Great Reunification: An Antinaturalist
Social Science 94
Conclusion: Future Projects and
a Renewed Humanism 110
Notes 114
Bibliography 126
Index 135

A c k n o w l e d g M e n t s
This book has its earliest roots in the summer of 2008, when the most
gifted graduate student in the political theory program at Berkeley at that
time suggested we spend a summer reading two philosophers (Charles
Taylor and Alasdair MacI ntyre) I knew next to nothing about instead
of the slate of contemporary thinkers (including Habermas, Foucault,
Rawls, Nozick, and Strauss) I had in mind. My research never would
have taken the direction it did without those months of freewheeling,
challenging, and mind- expanding discussions with Tyler Krupp.
What follows also would have been impossible to write without a se-
ries of interlocutors, critics, and guides: first and foremost Mark Bevir, a
great thinker and a rare kind of humanist, but also Kinch Hoekstra, John
Searle, Shannon Stimson, Andrius Galisanka, and a number of the partici-
pants in the Berkeley Political Theory Workshops. I am also grateful for the
support, in the form of a Seaver College Fellowship, of Pepperdine Uni-
versity. Above all, I am grateful to my wife, Lindsay, whose love and sup-
port are my most concrete and helpful forms of companionship. AMDG.
ix