The Failure Of Western Enlightenment Planning And Its Consequences

This paper aims to explore Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique of the moral rationality argument in the modern Western enlightenment.In Alasdair MacIntyre’s view,the argument for moral rationality in Western enlightenment planning was a failure,this failure has a very negative effect on the moral culture of the Western society today —— As if the emotionalism and bureaucracy became the mainstream of the moral culture of the modern Western society.Alasdair MacIntyre’s critique of the justification of moral rationality in the modern Western enlightenment is divided into three parts.The first part is "Alasdair Macintyre’s exposition of the failure of moral rationality in Western enlightenment planning".This part first introduces what is the Western Enlightenment Movement and Enlightenment Planning,and paves the way for later research on Alasdair Macintyre’s argumentation of moral rationality in enlightenment planning.Then it introduces the two kinds of moral rationality argumentation and their failure in Alasdair MacIntyre’s view,which provides a direct basis for Alasdair MacIntyre’s criticism of moral rationality argumentation in enlightenment planning.The second part studies "Alasdair Macintyre’s exposition of the reasons for the failure of moral rationality in Western enlightenment planning".Alasdair Macintyre holds that the main reason for the failure of the argument of moral rationality in the planning of the Western enlightenment is the existence of a value sequence between the definition of "fact" in the enlightenment period and that of the traditional Aristotle period,which was different from that of the Aristotle period,enlightenment philosophers,on the other hand,argued that the judgment of fact had nothing to do with the judgment of value.With this causal analysis,Alasdair Macintyre was able to point out that the moral system constructed by the enlightenment philosophers could not have the functions that ethics was supposed to have,therefore,it has obtained a more fundamental theoretical basis to criticize the argumentation of moral rationality in the enlightenment.The third part is "Alasdair MacIntyre’s description of the consequences of the failure of the Western enlightenment as a modern Western society centered on bureaucracy and emotionalism".This part explains the realistic basis of Alasdair Macintyre’s criticism on the argumentation of moral rationality in the enlightenment from Alasdair Macintyre’s analysis of "the fiction of social science idea","the fiction of management efficiency concept and bureaucracy" and "the emotionalism and bureaucracy as the center of modern moral culture".