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Back to the Rough Ground is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.
"...a first-rate piece of work...wide ranging in its scope, yet finely attentive to detail. It covers...a large number of contemporary thinkers, and yet shows scholarly and philosophical finesse in reading Aristotle and recovering the contemporary significance of his views of techne and phronesis." —The Review of Metaphysics
Joseph Dunne teaches philosophy of education at St. Patrick's College, Dublin City University. He has co-edited several books and is the author of many scholarly articles and reviews.
Alasdair MacIntyre is research professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of numerous books, including Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (Notre Dame Press, 1988) and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (Notre Dame Press, 1990).