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Philosopher of the monthPhilosopher of the Month

May 2003 - Charles Taylor

Dene Baker

Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self established him as one of the paradigm figures of contemporary philosophy. Sources of the Self is a rarity in that it is a book of philosophy that achieved a wide readership outside of philosophical circles, as did his The Ethics of Authenticity, an extended version of the 1991 Massey lectures which were broadcast in November 1991 as part of CBC Radio's Ideas series.

It is a vital part of understanding Taylor's approach to keep in mind that he is part of what is often called the 'neo-Aristotelian revival', a school of thought that has arisen, as much as for any other reason, out of a perceived failure of ethical thought in the post-Enlightenment world. Taylor's specific approach to this often focuses on a rejection of what he calls 'naturalism', 'by which I mean not just the view that man can be seen as part of nature - in one sense or other this would surely be accepted by everyone - but that the nature of which he is a part is to be understood according to the canons which emerged in the seventeenth-century revolution in natural science' (Philosophy and the Human Sciences). Indeed, Taylor calls himself a monomaniac in this regard, and Isaiah Berlin labeled him a 'hedgehog' because of this consistent basis to Taylor's broad-ranging philosophy.

In taking on 'naturalism' in its various forms, Taylor perceives himself as challenging one of the key sources of what he calls the 'modern malaise', which manifests itself primarily in a 'centring on the self, which both flattens and narrows our lives, makes them poorer in meaning, and less concerned with others or society' (The Ethics of Authenticity), and which can lead even further to a disorientating dislocation from those things that give our lives meaning and sense.

In Sources of the Self, Taylor argues that the self is essentially defined by its relation to the framework of goods that define the 'good life' (in the Aristotelian sense) for that self. Further, these moral frameworks are presided over by 'hypergoods', which are 'goods which not only are incomparably more important than others but provide the standpoint from which these must be weighed, judged, decided about'.

Taylor then goes on to develop a magnificent account of the philosophical sources of the modern Western self, starting with Plato's self-mastery and working his way through to what he calls the 'epiphanies of modernism'. Taylor's efforts at 'philosophical archaeology' in Sources of the Self follow from his claim that articulation of the self's sources is an essential part of the antidote to the malaise of modernity.

Taylor has been described as a paradigm case of a 'post-analytic' philosopher - someone who retains the rigour and clarity characteristic of the analytic tradition, but draws on sources and addresses subjects that fall beyond the analytic-continental divide. He is particularly noteworthy for his willingness to move beyond the ahistorical ethos characteristic of analytic analysis. While some of the continental influences on Taylor are fairly obvious, such as Hegel, it is interesting to note that he has also been influenced by the work of phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

The political has long been a central focus of activity for Taylor. Taylor has spent a great deal of time and effort in a struggle to prevent the breakup of the Canadian federation, both through his position as a philosopher, and through direct political involvement in the New Democratic Party.

One of the key assumptions that characterises Taylor's political philosophy is that the age of modernity and post-modernity is a pluralistic age. Taylor criticises contemporary philosophers such as Jürgens Habermas and John Rawls whom he believes have failed to take it sufficiently into account. In his paper 'Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition', Taylor in one sense takes on a communitarian point of view by claiming that it is essential to human identity that one's community be recognised both politically and socially, and he warns that certain forms of political liberalism endanger that recognition and promote homogeneity rather than recognising plurality. However this plurality is not something Taylor thinks we must simply accept at face value. Taylor argues for the possibility of a transvaluation of goods that would open the way for a reconciliation of the demands of pluralism, which he believes can be achieved through what he calls a language of perspicuous contrast. He argues that we cannot assume that all cultures are intrinsically valuable, and we must instead work towards a 'fusion of horizons' that grows out of recognising the qualitative contrast between cultures.

Strangely, Taylor has not attained as wide a degree of recognition as the quality of his work would seem to justify. Nonetheless, he has been strongly praised by some of the foremost philosophers of our day. The late Isaiah Berlin said, 'whatever one may think of his central beliefs, [they] cannot fail to broaden the outlook of anyone who reads his works or listens to his lectures or, indeed, talks to him' (Philosophy in an Age of Pluralism).

Suggested Reading
Sources of the Self, Charles Taylor (Harvard University Press)
The Ethics of Authenticity, Charles Taylor
Philosophy in an Age of Pluralism: The Philosophy of Charles Taylor in Question, ed. J Tully (Cambridge University Press)

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Previous Philosophers of the Month

November 2000 - David Hume
December 2000 - Thomas Paine
January 2001 - J. S. Mill
February 2001 - Thomas Kuhn
March 2001 - Thomas Aquinas
April 2001 - George Berkeley
May 2001 - Michel Foucault
Jun 2001 - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jul 2001 - Henry Sidgwick
August 2001 - René Descartes
September 2001 - Soren Kierkegaard
October 2001 - Simone de Beauvoir
November 2001 - Karl Marx
January 2002 - Baruch Spinoza
February 2002 - Friedrich Nietzsche
March 2002 - David Lewis
April 2002 - Richard Rorty
June 2002 - Hilary Putnam
July 2002 - Immanuel Kant
August 2002 - Niccolo Machiavelli
September 2002 - Kenneth Craik
October 2002 - Alasdair MacIntyre
November 2002 - Boethius
December 2002 - Plato
January 2003 - Nikos Kazantzakis
February 2003 - Mahatma Gandhi
March 2003 - Martin Heidegger
April 2003 - Dan Dennett

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