Life’s Journeys: MacIntyre’s Idea of Life as Enacted Narrative

Resumo

The starting point for this work is MacIntyre’s idea of life as an enacted narrative. MacIntyre introduces the idea of narrative in After Virtue, as part of his theory of virtue, after the concept of practice and before the concept of tradition. The representation of human life in narrative terms brings to the fore the longstanding relationship between philosophy and literature. In the following text I will try to examine the concept of the narrative structure of human life as it was first presented in After Virtue and demonstrate its continuity in MacIntyre’s later work. In this context, I will attempt, first, to examine whether MacIntyre’s idea of narrative can provide a basis for the unity of human life and action and, second, to identify its main differences from theories that emphasize fragmentation and see life as a series of disconnected events and interpretations challenging the notions of coherence and unity.