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MacIntyre, Sandel and the communitarians
1981–1982· School or movement· Politics, society & justice
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Critics of Rawlsian liberalism who argued that people are formed by communities and traditions, so justice cannot start from isolated individuals.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: we are not 'unencumbered selves' choosing our values from nowhere; family, nation, faith and tradition partly make us who we are. Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981) argued modern moral debate is fragments of lost traditions and called for a return to Aristotle's virtues, practiced within communities. Michael Sandel's Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982) attacked the self behind Rawls's veil. Charles Taylor and Michael Walzer added related critiques. Main objection: community can mean conformity, and whose traditions rule?
Why it matters
It pushed liberals, Rawls included, to take identity, belonging and civic virtue seriously, and fed the 1990s politics of 'community' on both left and right.
Where it comes from
After Virtue (1981), Sandel (1982), Walzer's Spheres of Justice (1983), Taylor's Sources of the Self (1989). Most of these thinkers rejected the 'communitarian' label themselves.
Still debated
Whether communitarians oppose liberalism or only refine it is debated; Rawls held that his later Political Liberalism (1993) already met most of their objections.
Connections (2)
▸Virtue ethics and eudaimonia (Nicomachean Ethics) was revived by MacIntyre, Sandel and the communitariansWell documented
The connection
MacIntyre's After Virtue argued that modern ethics, built on rules and rights, had lost the framework that once made moral words meaningful. His remedy was Aristotle: virtues as traits developed through shared practices, inside communities with a common idea of the good life. That revival also fed the communitarian case against Rawls.
When and how
Alasdair MacIntyre, a Scottish-born philosopher teaching in the United States, published After Virtue in 1981; Elizabeth Anscombe's 1958 essay 'Modern Moral Philosophy' had issued the first call.
How we know
After Virtue names Aristotle's ethics as the tradition to recover; with Anscombe's essay, it is widely credited for the late-20th-century revival of virtue ethics.
Debates and open questions
Sandel and Taylor drew less on Aristotle than MacIntyre did, and MacIntyre rejected the communitarian label, so how far this link covers the whole group is debated.
▸John Rawls, A Theory of Justice was criticized by MacIntyre, Sandel and the communitariansWell documented
The connection
Sandel argued that Rawls's parties behind the veil are 'unencumbered selves' without community ties, yet real people are partly made by family, faith and nation. MacIntyre and Taylor added that liberal neutrality about the good life is itself a contested view, not a neutral starting point.
When and how
Sandel, at Harvard, in Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982); MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981); Taylor and Walzer through the 1980s.
How we know
Sandel's book is a sustained critique of Rawls by name, and Rawls responded in 'Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical' (1985) and Political Liberalism (1993).
Debates and open questions
Rawls said his theory never claimed people are unencumbered; whether the critics hit the real target or a caricature is debated.