--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is only by participation in a…" description: "\"It is only by participation in a rational, practice-based community that one becomes rational.\" — Alasdair MacIntyre" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/354/alasdair-macintyre-14695_community_it-is-only-by-participation-in-a-rationa_2941362.jpg" --- # It is only by participation in a rational, practice-based… ![“It is only by participation in a rational, practice-based community that one becomes rational.” quote by Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/354/alasdair-macintyre-14695_community_it-is-only-by-participation-in-a-rationa_2941362.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/354/alasdair-macintyre-14695_community_it-is-only-by-participation-in-a-rationa_2941362.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/354/alasdair-macintyre-14695_community_it-is-only-by-participation-in-a-rationa_2941362.jpg) > “It is only by participation in a rational, practice-based community that one becomes rational.” [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Rationality emerges from participation in a community of practice, not isolation **In simple terms:** Community engagement cultivates rational thought Key Takeaway Engage in collaborative, practice‑based communities to develop reason Themes philosophy community education Mood analytical thoughtful Type philosophical educational When to use this quote - Professional guilds - academic forums - skill workshops Key Concepts Virtue ethics social epistemology learning theory Questions to Reflect On - How does community shape your reasoning? - Can solitary reflection also foster rationality? A Different Perspective May underplay individual critical thinking abilities ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Community](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/community/) [Participation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/participation/) [Practice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/practice/) ## Related quotes > [The void in our society has been produced by the absence of values... we have no widespread belief in the value of participation. 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I mean, I don't want to proselytize but I do feel some sort of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-cusack/but-you-know-i-m-sorry-i-think-democracy-requires-participation-i/) [John Cusack](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-cusack/) > [We whites who position ourselves as liberal often opt to protect what we perceive as our moral reputationsrather than recognize or change our participation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-diangelo/we-whites-who-position-ourselves-as-liberal-often-opt-to-protect-what/) [Robin DiAngelo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-diangelo/) > [Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-blunkett/politics-is-about-the-participation-and-engagement-of-the-wider/) [David Blunkett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-blunkett/) > [Even in the Western world, one cannot argue that the ideal has been achieved given the existence of issues like the integration, participation and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/recep-tayyip-erdogan/even-in-the-western-world-one-cannot-argue-that-the-ideal-has-been/) [Recep Tayyip Erdogan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/recep-tayyip-erdogan/) > [I think of mythology as the homeland of the muses, the inspirers of art, the inspirers of poetry. 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We practiced three times a week but if a student…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-brown/i-have-always-been-a-firm-believer-in-participation-so-there-were-no/) Tony Brown > [The language we share is at the core of our identity as citizens, and our ticket to full participation in American political life. We…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/s-i-hayakawa/the-language-we-share-is-at-the-core-of-our-identity-as-citizens-and/) [S. I. Hayakawa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/s-i-hayakawa/) ## More by Alasdair MacIntyre > [The bureaucratic manager, the consuming aesthete, the therapist, the protester and their numerous kindred occupy almost all the available culturally recognizable roles, the notions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/the-bureaucratic-manager-the-consuming-aesthete-the-therapist-the/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Modern politics is civil war carried on by other means.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/modern-politics-is-civil-war-carried-on-by-other-means/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [“the characterization of actions allegedly prior to any narrative form being imposed upon them will always turn out to be the presentation of what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/the-characterization-of-actions-allegedly-prior-to-any-narrative-form/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [“Indeed, one of the functions of the structures of normality is that by making it unnecessary for almost everybody almost all the time to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/indeed-one-of-the-functions-of-the-structures-of-normality-is-that-by/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Facts, like telescopes and wigs for gentlemen, were a seventeenth century invention.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/facts-like-telescopes-and-wigs-for-gentlemen-were-a-seventeenth/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [The good life for man is the life spent in seeking for the good life for man, and the virtues necessary for the seeking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/the-good-life-for-man-is-the-life-spent-in-seeking-for-the-good-life/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Those emotive theorists who said that the function of moral utterance was to evince emotion would... have been correct if they had substituted the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/those-emotive-theorists-who-said-that-the-function-of-moral-utterance/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Charles II once invited the members of the Royal Society to explain to him why a dead fish weighs more than the same fish…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/charles-ii-once-invited-the-members-of-the-royal-society-to-explain/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Morality which is no particular socity's morality is to be found nowhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/morality-which-is-no-particular-socity-s-morality-is-to-be-found/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [“The true genre of the life is neither hagiography nor saga, but tragedy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/the-true-genre-of-the-life-is-neither-hagiography-nor-saga-but-tragedy/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [What our laws show is the extent and degree to which conflict has to be suppressed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/what-our-laws-show-is-the-extent-and-degree-to-which-conflict-has-to/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/modern-systematic-politics-whether-liberal-conservative-radical-or/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [“unless there is a telos which transcends the limited goods of practices by constituting the good of a whole human life, the good of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/unless-there-is-a-telos-which-transcends-the-limited-goods-of/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [Traditions, when vital, embody continuities of conflict. Indeed when a tradition becomes Burkean, it is always dying or dead.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/traditions-when-vital-embody-continuities-of-conflict-indeed-when-a/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) > [The attempted professionalization of serious and systematic thinking has had a disastrous effect upon our culture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-macintyre/the-attempted-professionalization-of-serious-and-systematic-thinking/) [Alasdair MacIntyre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) [Explore all 45 Alasdair MacIntyre quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-macintyre/) ## More Community quotes > [Race is the idea that a human being is more superior than another human being, race in society grants illusional rights to mistreat each…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-limn/race-is-the-idea-that-a-human-being-is-more-superior-than-another/) [Jeremy Limn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-limn/) > [But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vikram-sarabhai/but-we-are-convinced-that-if-we-are-to-play-a-meaningful-role/) [Vikram Sarabhai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vikram-sarabhai/) > [In the hearing world, I'm constantly having to lip-read and trying to understand what's going on. 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They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It's about trust, connection,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umair-haque/the-social-media-channel-isn-t-about-beauty-contests-and-popularity/) [Umair Haque](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umair-haque/) > [We're at a point in history were we have to become a part of the neighborhood of inhabited planets, like a neighborhood of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-mitchell/we-re-at-a-point-in-history-were-we-have-to-become-a-part-of-the/) [Edgar Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-mitchell/) > [I have to feel the audience. I enjoy that feeling of community.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dave-gahan/i-have-to-feel-the-audience-i-enjoy-that-feeling-of-community/) [Dave Gahan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dave-gahan/) > [It rolls off my back. Ridicule doesn't mean anything - even from people you're supposed to wear knee pads around, like the scientific community.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dwight-schultz/it-rolls-off-my-back-ridicule-doesn-t-mean-anything-even-from-people/) [Dwight Schultz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dwight-schultz/) > [Jeff Chu's pilgrimage across America to discover his own place as a gay man in the Christian church as well as attitudes about being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-freitas/jeff-chu-s-pilgrimage-across-america-to-discover-his-own-place-as-a/) [Donna Freitas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-freitas/) > [I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/orson-scott-card/i-think-that-most-of-us-anyway-read-these-stories-that-we-know-are/) [Orson Scott Card](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/orson-scott-card/) > [Human life consists of doing certain things ... to take part in the life of the community; to be able to talk about subjects…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/human-life-consists-of-doing-certain-things-to-take-part-in-the-life/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [Parents who are stressed or disturbed will have more difficulty in meeting their children's needs. 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