Patologie sociali e cura dell’anima. Un confronto tra Alasdair MacIntyre e Jan Patočka

The aim of this paper is to compare some characteristic aspects of the ethical-political perspectives of Alasdair MacIntyre and Jan Patočka. We will examine their critical reading of modernity and the centrality assigned to “classical” thought, used to highlight the distorting effects caused by that epochal historical upheaval, as well as the resulting “social pathologies” afflicting the contemporary world. In this way, the diagnoses offered by MacIntyre in his most important works will be compared with some of the instances put forward by Patočka on several occasions, particularly in outlining his idea of “care for the soul”. The great importance given to the problem of how to accomplish a meaningful life will be examined, as well as the peculiar way in which MacIntyre understands the meaning of human flourishing, which is achieved by accepting human existence in its narrative dimension – that is, by conceiving one’s life as something unitary, of which a coherent narrative can be made: as it occurs, in some way, with the philosophical and existential path of Patočka himself.