ISME2025

Intellectual Traditions in Dialogue and Conflict

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

July 10-12, 2025

The 18th Annual Conference of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry

Organized in collaboration with the Collegium Institute

Conference Secretary
Nicholas Ogle

Keynote Speakers
Samuel Moyn (Yale University)
May Sim (College of the Holy Cross)

Call for Papers

In After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre famously describes a tradition as an “historically extended, socially embodied argument, and an argument precisely in part about the goods which constitute that tradition.” In the book’s sequels, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry, MacIntyre develops an account of the tradition-constituted nature of rational inquiry and explores how sustained dialogue between adherents to different traditions can be a source of progress, including progress in how to understand the disagreements between each tradition.

Drawing upon MacIntyre’s rich conceptualization of tradition and tradition-constituted inquiry, our conference theme encompasses a variety of topics related to intellectual traditions, ranging from the in-depth examination of particular traditions to the exploration of various interactions, conflicts, and potential reconciliations between competing intellectual paradigms. The theme also poses the question of how intellectual traditions can accommodate conflict between different perspectives within a particular tradition, and how these challenges affect their capacity for dialogue and mutual understanding with other traditions. Inspired and challenged by MacIntyre’s engagement with these questions, we welcome discussions that delve into the conflicts between and within traditions, the difficulties and benefits of establishing meaningful dialogue, and the prospects of reconciling or translating across diverse intellectual perspectives.

We especially invite paper proposals that address the following topics: 

• Theoretical perspectives on the concept of tradition and/or MacIntyre’s account of tradition-constituted inquiry

• In-depth studies of particular traditions, including the Catholic intellectual tradition

• Attempts at bridging, reconciling, and/or translating between different intellectual traditions

• Analyses of MacIntyre’s critique of Enlightenment foundationalism and postmodern relativism and the role of that critique in developing his account of tradition-constituted inquiry

• Reflections on the place of authority, tolerance, and pluralism in MacIntyre’s account of the rationality of traditions

• MacIntyre’s critique of liberalism, considered as a tradition

• Explorations of the role of educational institutions in the development and transmission of traditions of inquiry

• Considerations of the challenges posed to the transmission of tradition by a digital cultural environment

• Assessments of the reception of MacIntyre’s account of tradition in contemporary philosophical and theological ethics