““The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has developed a concept of ‘living traditions’, which suggests that traditions are entirely distinct from consensus and a simple repetition of the past. He defines a living tradition as ‘an historically extended, socially embodied argument, and an argument precisely in part about the goods which constitute that tradition’.6 It may seem strange to define a tradition as an ‘argument’ extended over time, but it suggests that any tradition – e.g. of political co-operation, educational practices or artistic activity – must involve a continuous discussion of what it is and how to legitimise or change it. Traditions aren’t monolithic and unchanging (apart from dead ones, of course). They are living, dynamic and in constant motion.””
