Alasdair MacIntyre argues in favor of a historicist Thomism in ethics and political philosophy. In his theory, sociological categories take up much of the space traditionally occupied by metaphysics. This peculiar feature of MacIntyre's Thomism, and its merits and demerits, is already a subject that has been taken up by many critics. In this thesis, these criticisms are supplemented and unified by identifying what is perhaps the most fundamental difficulty with MacIntyre's ethics: his version of Thomism is problematic because it treats epistemology as first philosophy. This misstep compromises MacIntyre's ability to provide a defense of moral objectivity, while also undermining his theory's usefulness in deriving moral rules. The result is an ethics of doubtful coherence. If Thomism is to offer a viable alternative to Enlightenment morality and Nietzschean genealogy, it must defend the priority of metaphysics with respect to epistemology.

L'écho parvenant d'Afrique au monde, ou du monde aux Africains, diffracte en une variation de nuances un thème répétitif : l'Afrique irait mal, surtout l'Afrique politique. Parmi ceux qui accourent à son secours, l’Église catholique tient un rôle vital. Mais que fait l’Église en Afrique, que peut-elle lui faire en tant qu’Église ? Peut-on aider l'Afrique à se moderniser en occultant le fait que pour elle, la modernité a été synonyme d'oppression coloniale ? Il y a là une affirmation, une action et une question. On se proposera, prenant l'exemple du Togo, de questionner la pertinence de l'affirmation, d'élaborer une réponse à la question, pour espérer (ré)orienter sinon l'action, du moins sa lecture. On s'inspirera des études post-coloniales et du mouvement théologique Radical Orthodoxy, notamment des travaux de Milbank et Cavanaugh. / Echoes from Africa to the world and from the world to Africa seem to tell a single story: Africa fails.Especially political Africa. Among those dashing to help, the commitment of the Church catholic is to be praised but also critically engaged. Can anyone help Africa to modernize by ignoring that in Africa, modernity meant colonization? Then, a question: what is the Church doing, and what can it do qua Church, for Africa? This confronts us with a situation, an action and a critical question. This work, focusing on Togo taken as mirror to the continent, aims at challenging the way the situation is described, at elaborating an answer to the question in hoping to shed a light on the way the action is understood and undertaken. For such an end, it draws on post-colonial studies and on the Cambridge theological movement called Radical Orthodoxy, through the works of J. Milbank and W. Cavanaugh.

What is political philosophy? Aristotle pursues that question by asking what the good is. If Nietzsche's postmodern diagnosis that modern philosophical rationalism has exhausted itself is true, it is unclear if an answer to that question is possible. Yet given the prevalence of extremist ideologies in 20th century politics, and the politically irresponsible support of philosophers for these ideologies, there is an urgent need for an answer. This thesis examines how, in these philosophical circumstances, Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and Alasdair MacIntyre conclude that a key resource in the recovery of political philosophy, and in showing its contemporary relevance, lies in the recovery of Aristotle's political philosophy. This thesis contends that how and why Arendt, Strauss, and MacIntyre turn to Aristotle, and what they find in Aristotle, depends on their varying critiques of modernity. Convinced that the philosophical tradition is shattered irreversibly after the events of totalitarianism, Arendt argues for a retrieval of Aristotle and his understanding of politics from the fragments of that tradition. Strauss is impelled to turn to the political philosophy of Aristotle because of the crisis of radical historicism, to recover classical rationalism’s answer to what the good is. MacIntyre turns to Aristotle to find the moral justification for rejecting Stalinism that contemporary philosophical traditions fail to provide; he reconstructs an Aristotelian tradition that can answer the question of what the good is better than his contemporary rivals. Although these thinkers may appear disparate, this thesis argues that each addresses the question of what the good is by offering a vision of political philosophy as a way of life, which Aristotle helps form. This way of life probes the relationship between philosophy and politics as permanent problem for human existence. In recovering this tradition of thinking with Aristotle about the character of political philosophy, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of each of these thinkers, as well as to the practice of political philosophy in modern, post-Nietzschean times.

Riverine landscapes are complex. More than just a single channel, they comprise a shifting mosaic of hydrogeomorphic patches with varying physical and biological characteristics. These patches are connected by water during flows of varying magnitude and frequency, at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Combined, landscape complexity and hydrological connectivity create biological diversity that in turn maintains the productivity, ecological function, and resilience of these systems. This thesis investigates the ecological importance of spatial heterogeneity and temporal hydrological connectivity in a dryland floodplain river landscape. It focuses on anabranch channels, and uses major carbon sources in these and adjacent landscape patches as indicators of ecological pattern and process. A conceptual model was proposed, describing the potential effects upon the distribution and availability of major carbon sources of: a) a spatial mosaic of hydrogeomorphic patches in the landscape (e.g. anabranches, river channel, and wider floodplain); and b) four primary temporal phases of hydrological connection during flow pulses (disconnection, partial connection, complete connection, and draining). This was then tested by data collected over a three year period from a 16 km reach of the lower Macintyre River (NSW/QLD Australia). Results were examined at multiple spatial scales (patch scale � river channel vs. anabranches vs. floodplain; between individual anabranches; and within anabranches � entry, middle and exit sites). The data indicate that spatial heterogeneity in the lower Macintyre River landscape significantly influences ecological pattern. Carbon quantity was greater in anabranch channels compared to adjacent river channel patches, but not compared to the floodplain; while carbon quality was greater in anabranch channels compared to both adjacent river channel and floodplain patches. Stable isotope analysis indicated that carbon sources that were predominantly found in anabranch channels supported both anabranch and river organisms during a winter disconnection phase. Other carbon sources found in the main river channel and the wider floodplain appeared to play a comparatively minimal role in the food web. Different phases of hydrological connection between anabranch channels and the main river channel were associated with differences in the availability of carbon sources. In the river channel, draining of water from anabranches (the draining phase) was associated with relatively high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and low concentrations of phytoplankton. Conversely, the disconnection phase was associated with relatively low concentrations of DOC and high concentrations of phytoplankton in the river channel. In anabranch channels and their waterbodies, the disconnection and draining phases were associated with high concentrations of both DOC and phytoplankton. Concentrations of these carbon sources were lowest in anabranches during the partial and complete connection phases. Different hydrological connection phases were also associated with changes in trophic status in the aquatic components of the landscape. On the riverbanks, relatively low rates of benthic production and respiration during the complete connection phase were associated with heterotrophy. The remaining phases appeared to be autotrophic. Benthic production on riverbanks was greatest during the disconnection phase, and respiration was greatest during the partial connection phase. In the anabranch channels, rates of production and respiration were similar during the disconnection phase, and were associated with heterotrophy in the anabranch waterbodies. The remaining phases appeared to be autotrophic. Respiration was greatest in anabranches during the disconnection phase, and production was greatest during the draining phase. Both production and respiration were lowest during complete connection. These differences and changes varied according to the landscape patch examined. At a landscape scale, anabranch channels act as both sinks and suppliers of carbon. High rates of sediment deposition facilitate their role as sinks for sediment-associated carbon and other particulate, refractory carbon sources. Simultaneously, anabranch channels supply aquatic carbon sources from their waterbodies, as well as via processes such as inundation-stimulated release of DOC from surface sediments. Modelled data indicated that water resource development reduces the frequency and duration of connection between anabranch channels and the main river channel. This loss of landscape complexity via loss of connectivity with anabranches has the potential to reduce the total availability of carbon sources to the ecosystem, as demonstrated by a modelled 13% reduction in potential dissolved organic carbon release from anabranch sediments. This thesis has demonstrated the importance of spatial heterogeneity in riverine landscapes, by documenting its association with variability in the distribution and quality of primary energy sources for the ecosystem. It has shown that this variability is augmented by different phases of hydrological connectivity over time. Spatial heterogeneity and hydrological connectivity interact to increase the diversity and availability of ecological energy sources across the riverine landscape, at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This has positive implications for the resilience and sustainability of the system. Anabranch channels are particularly important facilitators of these effects in this dryland floodplain river system. Anabranch channels are �intermediate� in terms of spatial placement, temporal hydrological connection, and availability of carbon sources; of high value in terms of high-quality carbon sources; and relatively easy to target for management because of their defined commence-to-flow levels. Further research should be directed toward evaluating other ecological roles of anabranch channels in dryland rivers, thereby providing a more complete understanding of the importance of connectivity between these features and other patches. This knowledge would assist management of floodplain river landscapes at larger regional scales, including amelioration of the effects of water resource development.

The tradition of classical Christology, understood in a MacIntyrean sense as an historically extended and socially embodied argument, is facing an epistemological crisis due to the fact that, at each stage in its complex development, it has failed to resolve the problems arising out of the articulation of the classical interpretation of the Incarnation. This failure on the part of the tradition is due to the unsatisfactory and intractable metaphysical dualism at its heart. This dualism, highlighted in each successive attempt to explain the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, is to be understood as a symptom of a more fundamental God-world dualism, entailed by the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, and informing the traditional Christian conceptual scheme. Failure to recognise and address the God-world problematic has led to one-sided Christological solutions that reflect and reinforce this original and most basic dualism. An alternative view of God is needed to inform Christology if the problematic dualism at the heart of the classical model is to be overcome and the epistemological crisis resolved. Pan(en)theism is such an alternative model of God that offers resources for a non-dualistic Christopraxis.

The tradition of classical Christology, understood in a MacIntyrean sense as an historically extended and socially embodied argument, is facing an epistemological crisis due to the fact that, at each stage in its complex development, it has failed to resolve the problems arising out of the articulation of the classical interpretation of the Incarnation. This failure on the part of the tradition is due to the unsatisfactory and intractable metaphysical dualism at its heart. This dualism, highlighted in each successive attempt to explain the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, is to be understood as a symptom of a more fundamental God-world dualism, entailed by the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, and informing the traditional Christian conceptual scheme. Failure to recognise and address the God-world problematic has led to one-sided Christological solutions that reflect and reinforce this original and most basic dualism. An alternative view of God is needed to inform Christology if the problematic dualism at the heart of the classical model is to be overcome and the epistemological crisis resolved. Pan(en)theism is such an alternative model of God that offers resources for a non-dualistic Christopraxis.

Modernity has generally been interpreted as a radical expression of human progress in the light of the advances of modern science and technology. According to Alasdair MacIntyre, however, modernity is a project "doomed to failure". Given the progressive-linearity of the modern model of rationality, the past has, in principle, been ruled out as a source of moral-political wisdom and guidance. From the perspective of modernity, the present (as the progressive moment of the future) has therefore nothing to learn from past traditions. MacIntyre contends that the moral confusion within modernity comes from its loss of telos, mediated in terms of the past. Modernity therefore harbours a paradox based on its inability to provide a philosophical justification for establishing the possibility of human solidarity in the present, while simultaneously affirming its faith in the future. In this regard, MacIntyre's work is an important contribution to the philosophical debate on modernity. / Philosophy / M. A. (Philosophy)

Ce mémoire traite de la critique communautarienne du libéralisme et se donne deux projets. D’abord, il s’agit de formuler une position de synthèse à partir des travaux des philosophes Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, Alasdair MacIntyre et Michael Walzer. Cette synthèse s’articule autour de trois axes, soit ontologique, sociale et méthodologique. Le deuxième projet est d’évaluer cette position pour statuer sur son rapport au libéralisme, et, plus précisément, pour déterminer si elle est seulement une critique, une alternative, ou encore une variante à l’intérieur du libéralisme. Il est conclu que le communautarisme est réconciliable avec une certaine forme de libéralisme et que sa critique permet même de l’améliorer. / In this essay about the communitarian critique of liberalism I seek to reach two goals. First, it is to form a synthesis from the works of philosophers Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Walzer. This synthesis is articulated through three axes: ontologicial, social and methodological. Building on this, my second objective is to assess its relation to liberalism. More specifically, I seek to determine whether communitarianism is merely a critique, an alternative or a variant of liberalism. My conclusion is that communitarianism is reconciliable with a certain form of liberalism and that its critique allows to improve it.

本文的主旨在於探討當代美國哲學家麥金泰爾（1929－）的政治思想。麥金泰爾以亞里斯多德的理論來構築他心中理想的政治社群。並據此批駁自由主義所建構的政治社群。本研究擬藉此論爭以深入討論政治社群的本質。而整個研究是奠基在麥金泰爾後期（1981－）的著作。全文共分四章，分別略述如下。 第一章 緒論 旨在說明本研究的動機與目的，並概述麥金泰爾政治思想的 背景以及他的哲學研究方法。 第二章 麥金泰爾對現代性的批判麥金泰爾以亞里斯多德傳統的目的論觀點，批判啟蒙以來整個現代性的發展。本章討論麥金泰爾對現代性獨特的理解。 第三章 麥金泰爾的德性理論構築一個德性的社群是麥金泰爾思想的中心。因此對德性的探討成為他理論的基礎。本章討論麥金泰爾的古典德性理論以及德性的三個核心環節，進而論述此一德性理論的政治社會基礎。 第四章 政治社群的重建主導現帶社會的自由主義所引發的問題是麥金泰爾批評的重心所在。因此本章藉由麥金泰爾與自由主義之間的爭論來探討政治社群的重建問題。並且對麥金泰爾的理論部分與實踐部分作一評估。 結論 筆者綜合前面討論提出三個值得注意的論點

La tesi indaga la specificità dell’approccio narrativo all’etica tramite l’analisi e il confronto delle proposte teoriche di A. MacIntyre, I. Murdoch, Ch. Taylor, P. Ricoeur e D. Carr, individuate come imprescindibili per le elaborazioni successive sul tema dell’etica narrativa, sia in ambito strettamente filosofico, sia nel più vasto scenario delle humanities. L’indagine descrittiva è finalizzata a una caratterizzazione quanto più possibile puntuale del profilo teorico dell’etica narrativa in quanto figura speculativa e alla messa a fuoco del suo apporto specifico alla riflessione etica. La duplice focalizzazione, storica e critica, della ricerca si riflette nelle modalità di interrogazione delle fonti. Nel caso di Alasdair MacIntyre e Iris Murdoch (ai quali sono dedicati rispettivamente il capitolo I e II) viene sviluppato un percorso selettivo di analisi testuale che, soffermandosi sui luoghi salienti della produzione di ciascun autore, evidenzia il ruolo della narrazione come paradigma per comprendere la prassi morale e formulare una teoria che ne rispetti la specificità. Al vaglio teoretico, piuttosto che all’analisi ricostruttiva, è invece più direttamente finalizzato il capitolo ‘sinottico’ dedicato a Taylor, Ricoeur e Carr (capitolo III). Prendendo spunto dalla tavola rotonda che li ha visti protagonisti nel 1983, all’indomani della pubblicazione del primo volume di Tempo e racconto di Ricoeur, il capitolo sviluppa infatti un esame dell’opera dei tre autori che punta a chiarire l’apporto specifico della componente fenomenologica, di quella critico-trascendentale e di quella ermeneutica alla loro riflessione sul nesso tra etica e narrazione. Le Considerazioni conclusive recuperano le osservazioni di carattere teoretico-valutativo raccolte al termine di ciascuno dei capitoli monografici e le indicazioni di carattere fondativo emerse all’interno del capitolo sinottico, pervenendo a un’ipotesi di definizione dell’etica narrativa, della sua fondazione antropologica e della specifica idea del bene che essa veicola. / The thesis deals with the narrative approach to ethics, whose peculiarity is analyzed with reference to the works of A. MacIntyre, I. Murdoch, Ch. Taylor, P. Ricoeur and D. Carr; their theories, in fact, are recognized as the starting points for the subsequent elaborations about narrative ethics, in philosophy as well as in the larger field of the humanities. The analyses of the works and the comparisons among the authors aim at an exact characterization of the speculative profile of narrative ethics and are directed to specify its contribution to ethics. This double focus, historical and theoretical, of the thesis is reflected in the way the sources are examined. As concerns A. MacIntyre and I. Murdoch (confronted respectively in chapter I and chapter II), a selective textual analysis is put forward, whose purpose is to point out the role of narrative as a paradigm both to comprehend the moral conduct and to formulate a theory able to do justice to its peculiarity. To theoretical confrontation more than to historical reconstruction is devoted the ‘synoptical’ chapter concerning Taylor, Ricoeur, and Carr (chapter III). Taking as a starting point the round table of 1983, when they met soon after Time and Narrative I by Ricoeur was published, the chapter works out a comparative analysis of the works of the authors in order to clarify the contribution of the phenomenological, Kantian and hermeneutical legacy to their justification of the link between narrative and ethics. The “Final remarks” collect the critical considerations introduced at the end of the first two chapters and the hints about the possible foundations of narrative ethics drawn in chapter III, coming to a hypothesis about the definition of the narrative approach to ethics, its anthropological foundation and the idea of the Good it points to.