현대사회에는 다양한 주장들이 난무하며, 각 주장은 나름의 합리성과 정당성을 갖고 있으므로 합의가 쉽지 않다. 한편, 교사들은 논쟁적인 문제에 대해 중립적인 입장을 취함으로써 이러한 어려움을 심화시킨다는 의심을 받고 있다. 맥킨타이어(A. MacIntyre)에 따르면, 각 주장간의 이러한 불가공약성은 근대에 들어 도덕을 정당화하고자 했던 계몽주의 기획에서 비롯된 것이다. 이 시기의 윤리학자들은 목적론을 배제한 채, 인간본성과 윤리규범만을 재해석함으로써 윤리학을 복원하고자 하였다. 하지만, 그 결과 우리에게 남겨진 윤리규범은 박제화된 채 강요된 ‘의무’가 되고 말았다. 그리고 도덕을 개인의 선호, 감정, 태도의 표현으로 대체하려는 정의주의를 풍미하게 만들었다. 이에 따라 현대인의 인간관계는 조작적 관계로 변화하였고, 공동체와 전통을 부정하는 개인화 된 자아관이 조장되었다. 맥킨타이어에 의하면, 이러한 문제를 극복하기 위해서는 상실된 목적론을 부활해야만 한다. 그가 부활하고자 하는 목적론을 '사회적 목적론'이라고 할 수 있는데, 왜냐하면 이는 아리스토텔레스의 목적론 가운데 형이상학과 생물학을 배제하고 사회학만을 남겨 놓은 것이기 때문이다. 물론, 자유주의가 지배적인 현대 사회에서 그의 목적론 부활 주장이 가능한 것이냐에 대한 의문이 존재한다. 하지만, 만일 우리 학교교육이 지향하는 합리성이 많은 주장 가운데 한 가지에 불과한 어떤 주장을 정당화하는 것처럼 여겨지고, 학교의 지배적인 인간관계와 자아관이 정의주의적인 것으로 보여진다면, 우리는 사회적 목적론을 통해 덕 윤리의 부활을 도모하는 맥킨타이어의 논의에 귀를 기울여야 할 것이다.

In modern society, there's going on heated competition for dominance among various arguments and each has its own rationality and justification. So it's not possible to make them reach an agreement. On the other hand, teachers are suspected that they make the problem of an agreement more difficult because they take the neutral position about the controversial arguments. A. MacIntyre says that such an incommensurability among various arguments has originated from Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality in the beginning of the modern age. Ethicists in those days attempted to restore ethics through reinterpretation of human nature and ethical rules with teleology excluded. D. Hume purposes to justify ethical rules considering human nature as passion or desire. On the contrary, I. Kant protects these rules by rationality. Though their attempts are from the different direction, the results are the same. Their attempts have left us fossilized ethical rules changed into obligation imposed on us. In the 20th century, the exclusion of teleology in Ethics has brought about the predominance of emotivism, moral judgements expressed in individuals' feelings or attitudes. Emotivism tries to replace morality with individual preference, emotion, and attitude. Under the influence of emotivism, human relationship in modern society has become manipulative, and individualized self perception that denies community and tradition has been encouraged. A. MacIntyre tries to overcome the difficulties by revival of teleology. It is so called 'Social Teleology', because it excludes metaphysics and biology but includes sociology in Aristotelian teleology. The ideal life that he admires has practical rationality which is obtained from social practices. However, in modern society where the premise of diversity is made, there still exists some doubts about the possibility of his sole teleology. Although his proposal has such limits, it can help us when we reflect on our education. If we consider the rationality that our school education aims at as nothing but an attempt to justify one of those various argument, and if we suppose that the dominant human relationship and self perception is emotive ones in our school system, we need to listen carefully to MacIntyre's argument that emphasizes restoration of teleology.

In modern society, there's going on heated competition for dominance among various arguments and each has its own rationality and justification. So it's not possible to make them reach an agreement. On the other hand, teachers are suspected that they make the problem of an agreement more difficult because they take the neutral position about the controversial arguments. A. MacIntyre says that such an incommensurability among various arguments has originated from Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality in the beginning of the modern age. Ethicists in those days attempted to restore ethics through reinterpretation of human nature and ethical rules with teleology excluded. D. Hume purposes to justify ethical rules considering human nature as passion or desire. On the contrary, I. Kant protects these rules by rationality. Though their attempts are from the different direction, the results are the same. Their attempts have left us fossilized ethical rules changed into obligation imposed on us. In the 20th century, the exclusion of teleology in Ethics has brought about the predominance of emotivism, moral judgements expressed in individuals' feelings or attitudes. Emotivism tries to replace morality with individual preference, emotion, and attitude. Under the influence of emotivism, human relationship in modern society has become manipulative, and individualized self perception that denies community and tradition has been encouraged. A. MacIntyre tries to overcome the difficulties by revival of teleology. It is so called 'Social Teleology', because it excludes metaphysics and biology but includes sociology in Aristotelian teleology. The ideal life that he admires has practical rationality which is obtained from social practices. However, in modern society where the premise of diversity is made, there still exists some doubts about the possibility of his sole teleology. Although his proposal has such limits, it can help us when we reflect on our education. If we consider the rationality that our school education aims at as nothing but an attempt to justify one of those various argument, and if we suppose that the dominant human relationship and self perception is emotive ones in our school system, we need to listen carefully to MacIntyre's argument that emphasizes restoration of teleology.

virtue, ethics, teleology, MacIntyre