In this paper, I reconstruct Alasdair MacIntyre’s aretaic, practical philosophy, drawing out its implications for professional ethics in general and the practice of teaching in particular. After reviewing the moral theory as a whole, I examine MacIntyre’s notion of internal goods. Defined within the context of practices, such goods give us reason to reject the very idea of applied ethics. Being...

secular ethics – which is known as the de-religionized, human, or conventional ethics – contrasts the religious and divine ethics. its roots are in humanistic thought that adapts itself to the needs and the direction of the society. therefore, the contraction and dilation of secular ethics will be unstable, gradual, and accidental. moreover, it is not possible to expect this thought system to p...

Acknowledgements: The early draft of this paper has been orally presented at the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy (ASCP) Annual Conference 2004 “Critique Today”, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Division of SCMP, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 8-10 December, 2004, session 17 “Phenomenology, Semiotics, Ethics”. Th...

Medical ethics is that branch of applied philosophy which considers issues of values raised by medical practice, and should not be equated with 'principlism'. Clarification of facts/values distinctions is an important part of this work. The notion that medical philosophy can flourish in the hands of medical 'generalists' without specialist philosophers, is misguided. Both must work together to ...