Alasdair MacIntyre - Biography

Biography

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre was born 12 January 1929 in Glasgow, to John and Emily (Chalmers) MacIntyre. He was educated at Queen Mary College, London, and has a Master of Arts from the University of Manchester and from the University of Oxford. He began his teaching career in 1951 at Manchester University. He taught at the University of Leeds, the University of Essex and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, before moving to the USA in around 1969. MacIntyre has been something of an intellectual nomad, having taught at many universities in the US. He has held the following positions:

• Professor of History and Ideas, Brandeis University (1969 or 1970),
• Dean of the College of Arts and Professor of Philosophy, Boston University (1972),
• Henry Luce Professor, Wellesley College (1980),
• W. Alton Jones Professor, Vanderbilt University (1982),
• Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame (1985),
• Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University (1985),
• Visiting scholar, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University (1988),
• McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame (1989), and
• Arts & Sciences Professor of Philosophy, Duke University (1995–1997).

He has also been a visiting professor at Princeton University, and is a former president of the American Philosophical Association. In 2010, he was awarded the Aquinas Medal by the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

From 2000 he was the Rev. John A. O'Brien Senior Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy (emeritus since 2010) at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana USA. He is also Professor Emerit and Emeritus at Duke University. In April 2005 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society, and in July 2010 became Senior Research Fellow at London Metropolitan University's Centre for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics.

He has been married 3 times. From 1953 to 1963 he was married to Ann Peri, with whom he had two daughters. From 1963 to 1977 he was married to Susan Willans, with whom he had a son and daughter. Since 1977 he has been married to philosopher Lynn Joy, who is also on the Philosophy faculty at Notre Dame.