The Nice Paper as a MacIntyrean community of virtuous practice: A wunderkammer of resistance to late-capitalist modernity in Rhode Island, 1989-1995

Abstract

This dissertation is an epistemological study of virtue and its place in addressing the transdisciplinary question "What is a good life?" Alasdair MacIntyre's three-pronged account of virtue is applied to a case study of the Nice Paper, an alternative newspaper published in Rhode Island from 1989 until 1995, in order to discern the workings of virtue as resistance to late-capitalist modernity. It was discerned through hermeneutic phenomenology that the practices, traditions and narrative unity of the community of the paper were expressed in the sub-communities of alternative-ness, journalism, being in and of Providence and Rhode Island, being a maker and do-er, and art. The paper functioned as a well curated wunderkammer, itself like a work of art. The application of MacIntyre's account was expanded, and the interpretation included the discovery of the Nice Paper's being a "community of virtue," in which the individual was transformed from "plain person" to "moral philosopher" through the practices that aimed not only at the goods of the sub communities, but also at the greater good of human flourishing. A bridge to the classical virtues courage, justice, and hope is developed. The findings merit the consideration of the paper as a model of a community of practice offering a good life. The study puts forth a historical account of the moral, political, and aesthetic "structure of feeling," and argues for a place in the history of Providence and Rhode Island.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Philosophy

First Advisor

Daniel Cowdin

Date of Award

1-1-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

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