ng upon which of the competing or “rival” theories we adopt, “It is precisely because there is in our society no established way of deciding between these claims that moral argument appears interminable. From our rival conclusions we can argue back to our rival premises; but when we do arrive at our premises argument ceases and the invocation of one premise against another becomes a matter of pure assertion and counter-assertion. Hence perhaps the slightly shrill tone of so much moral debate,” (MacIntyre, 1981: 8).
Where MacIntyre is concerned, the emotivist theory that evolved out of the enlightenment is not sufficient as a useful and applicable theory in modern life on how to be a moral agent because it has only given us stock characters. For example, the bureaucratic manager, the therapist and the rich aesthete are all stock characters in the sense that they are regarded by other members of society as an embodiment of certain cultural and moral ideals, ...