Según Alasdair MacIntyre, la Universidad liberal descansa en ficciones que encubren sus propósitos y le proporcionan una legitimidad engañosa. Esta crítica no siempre se ha entendido en su profundidad, y se suele ver en ella una actitud reaccionaria de retorno nostálgico a la Universidad medieval. Se analizan esas ficciones: la sobre-especialización como sinónimo de profundidad investigativa, la neutralidad y la objetividad como posibilitadoras de racionalidad, y la excelencia en la gestión como forma de asegurar el logro de sus objetivos. Se (...) muestra cómo, a través de esta denuncia, aparece una postura revolucionaria, influida por Marx y Nietzsche, que busca desenmascarar las contradicciones internas de la Universidad liberal. According to Alasdair MacIntyre, the liberal University is based on fictions that hide its purposes and provide a misleading legitimacy. This critique has not always been understood in its depth and is often seen as a reactionary attitude, nostalgic for the medieval University. This article analyzes these fictions: over-specialization as a synonym for deep research, neutrality and objectivity as enablers of rationalism, and excellence in management as a form of ensuring its objectives. It shows how this indictment manifests a revolutionary position, influenced by Marx and Nietzsche, which seeks to unmask the internal contradictions of the liberal University. (shrink)

El presente trabajo quiere analizar la encíclica Caritas in veritate desde la idea de globalización como clave hermenéutica de todo el documento. Nos parece que este noción -comprendida en sus múltiples dimensiones sociales, éticas, políticas, culturales y espirituales- puede contribuir no sólo a una comprensión más profunda de este texto, sino que también puede ayudar a desentrañar muchas de las críticas que ha recibido esta carta, su excesiva extensión y complejidad temática, así como su silencio sobre el capitalismo y el (...) liberalismo. En una segunda etapa, pretendemos comparar la propuesta de esta encíclica social con el proyecto político de las pequeñas comunidades de Alasdair MacIntyre. La intención es mostrar que lejos de una oposición entre ambas posturas -como de alguna forma lo señaló Jeffrey Nicholas- ellas pueden comprenderse como posturas complementarias, en la medida que realicemos una nueva significación del concepto mismo de globalización, entendida ahora como un proceso dialéctico típicamente postmoderno, siguiendo para ello los análisis de autores como Roland Robertson, Zygmunt Bauman o Ulrich Beck. In this paper we seek to analyze the eneyelieal Caritas in veritate based on the idea of globalization as a hermeneutical key to the whole document. We think that this notion -understood in its multiple social, ethical, political, cultural and spiritual dimensions- can contribute not only to a deeper understanding of this text, but also help unravel many of the criticisms directed against the letter, its excessive length and thematic complexity, as well as its silence regarding capitalism and liberalism. In a second stage, we set out to compare the proposal of this social enyelieal with Alasdair Maclntyre’s political project of local communities. Our purpose lies in demonstrating that far from an opposition between the two positions -as Jeffrey Nicholas has in a way pointed out- that they can be understood as complementary, to the extent that we make a new meaning of the very concept of globalization, now understood as a typically postmodern dialectical process based on to the analyses of authors such as Roland Robertson, Zygmunt Bauman or Ulrich Beck. (shrink)

The complexity and emotional/psychological responses to the environmental challenges of the 21st century has led to the coining and development of new words and concepts that, for some people, better describe how they are personally grappling with anthropogenic ecosystem damage and climate breakdown. This paper identifies some of the more commonly used environmental neologisms within scholarly literature and evaluates their usefulness and contradictions for those influenced by the virtue ethics promoted by the ancient Stoics and the Catholic Church. We find (...) that environmental neologisms, when framed by these philosophical and/or theological ideas, offer an alternative and, ultimately, helpful means to contemplate the nature of what might be considered an environmental crisis and how best we might address, or at least, mitigate it, as conscientious spiritual human beings. (shrink)

Neoliberalism, in various ways, is radically new. It is nevertheless constructed from the conditions of liberal modernity, the inadequacies of which are crucial to neoliberal success. Liberalism in practice restricts moral agency through an impoverished, structurally-reinforced conception of practical reasoning, as Alasdair MacIntyre argues, and this is important to understanding neoliberal durability. This article argues that a bureaucratic culture that fails to evaluate or critically question the ends it pursues is both symptomatic of liberal inadequacies and a key factor in (...) neoliberal success. Beyond its purely explanatory power, there is a political relevance to MacIntyre’s Aristotelian-inspired politics of local community. It is from those practices and communal movements that embody alternative conceptions of the good, that those interested in resisting neoliberalism can learn how it becomes possible to successfully challenge aspects of the contemporary social order. (shrink)