POLITICAL ROLE OF A (POLITICAL) PHILOSOPHER IN POLIS ACCORDING TO ALASDAIR MACINTYRE (Rola i odpowiedzialnosc filozofa polityki w polis wedle A. MacIntyrea.)

What makes a philosopher direct his attention to the word of politics? An event and moral evil with which ordinary people cannot cope and do not even know what to think about. This is the case of Plato, T. Hobbes, L. Strauss, K. Jaspers. It can also be a quest for reconciliation with reality which the philosopher finds unacceptable. This is the case of Aristotle, Hegel, M. Walzer and A. MacIntyre. In both cases the philosopher distances himself from the social order and current dynamics of the world power. He remains in the domain of concepts and theories and is able to pass from a pure knowledge about the world to practical conclusions. Philosopher himself does not act but he provides premises for decisions and political activity of authorities or citizens. Strauss witnessed the collapse of both totalitarian systems of XX century, which he conceived as consequences of errors of the whole post-Enlightenment modernity. Jaspers searched for political guilt in the past of Germany and in omissions of European nations after World War I. According to Arendt Europeans, and German in particular, suffered for both moral and intellectual decay of judgment (Urteilskraft). Walzer searches for reconciliation of the philosopher with the democracy, a reconciliation difficult for both parties. MacIntyre is quite a radical critic of capitalist modernity who searches for relatively gentle forms of therapy. How does he portrait the figure of philosopher who is critical to modernity? And what are his intellectual virtues? What remedies does he give to the dynamics of the contemporary social word of globalization? These questions the Author tries to answer by comparing MacIntyre's line of reasoning with those of the other authors mentioned above.