Charles Margrave Taylor,
CCThe Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the highest such order administered by the Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. Created in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian...
,
GOQThe National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
,
FRSCThe Royal Society of Canada , now known as the RSC: Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
(born November 5, 1931) is a Canadian philosopher from
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, who has made contributions to
political philosophyPolitical philosophy is the study of city, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
,
philosophy of social scienceThe philosophy of social science considers the nature of confirmation and explanation in the social sciences, such as sociology, anthropology and political science...
, and the
history of philosophyThe history of philosophy is the study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include : How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what...
. He is often classified as a
communitarianCommunitarianism, as a group of related but distinct philosophies, began in the late 20th century, opposing exalted forms of individualism while advocating phenomena such as civil society...
, but is uncomfortable with the label. Taylor is also a practicing Roman Catholic. He has often criticised the increased individualisation of modern life, what he calls the 'malaise of modernity'.
Career
Charles Taylor began his undergraduate education at
McGill UniversityMcGill University is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
(B.A. in History in 1952). He continued his studies at the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
, first as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, (B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics ) in 1955, and then as a post-graduate, (D.Phil. in 1961), under the supervision of
Isaiah BerlinSir Isaiah Berlin, OM was a philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century...
and
G.E.M. AnscombeG. E. M. Anscombe , born Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, but better known as Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical...
.
He succeeded
John PlamenatzJohn Petrov Plamenatz was a Montenegrin political philosopher, who spent most of his academic life at the University of Oxford. He became a Fellow of All Souls College, and succeeded Isaiah Berlin as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford...
as
Chichele Professor of Social and Political TheoryThe Chichele professorial chair in social and political theory is one of the statutory Chichele Professorships at All Souls College, Oxford. This Chair was established 1944.-Chichele Professors of Social and Political Theory:* G. D. H. Cole, 1944 - 1957...
in the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
and Fellow of
All Souls CollegeAll Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
and was for many years Professor of
Political SciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
and
PhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
at
McGill UniversityMcGill University is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he is now
professor emeritusA Professor Emeritus is a full professor who retires in good standing. While technically this is the term for a male and women are known as Professor Emerita, women such as Germaine Greer are known by the masculine title. This title is also given to retired professors who continue to teach and to...
. Taylor is now Board of Trustees Professor of Law and Philosophy at
Northwestern University{{Infobox university|name = Northwestern University|image_name = NU seal.png|motto = Quaecumque sunt vera |mottoeng =Whatsoever things are true |established = 1851|type = Private|calendar = Quarter...
in
EvanstonEvanston may refer to:* Evanston, Illinois* Evanston, Indiana* Evanston, Ohio* Evanston, Wyoming* Evanston, South Australia* Evanston, Nova Scotia, Canada* Evanston, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
. Many of his students have gone on to be important philosophers and political theorists. Taylor also serves as Contributing Editor for the academic journal
Public CulturePublic Culture is a reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal of cultural studies, founded in 1988 by anthropologists Carol Breckenridge and Arjun Appadurai...
, published by
Duke University PressDuke University Press is a publisher of books and journals, owned by Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 35 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections. The Press publishes primarily in the humanities and social sciences....
.
In 1991, Taylor was appointed to the Conseil de la langue française in the province of
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, at which point he devastatingly critiqued Quebec's notorious commercial sign laws. In 1995, he was made a Companion of the
Order of CanadaThe Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the highest such order administered by the Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. Created in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian...
. In 2000, he was made a Grand Officer of the
National Order of QuebecThe National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
. He was awarded the 2007
Templeton PrizeThe Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical...
for progress towards research or discoveries about spiritual realities, which includes a cash award of US$1.5 million. In 2007 he and
Gérard BouchardGérard Bouchard is a historian, sociologist and writer from Quebec, Canada, affiliated with the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Born in Jonquière, Quebec, he obtained his master's degree in sociology from Université Laval in 1968 and later obtained his PhD degree in history from the University...
were appointed to head a one-year Commission of Inquiry into the "reasonable accommodation" in his home province of Quebec, Canada. In June 2008 he was awarded the
Kyoto PrizeThe has been awarded annually since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, founded by Kazuo Inamori. The prize is a Japanese award similar in intent to the Nobel Prize, as it recognizes outstanding works in the fields of philosophy, arts, science and technology...
in the arts and philosophy category. The Kyoto Prize is sometimes referred to as the Japanese Nobel.
Views
In order to understand the stance that Taylor presents in
Sources of the Self one should understand his philosophical background, especially his writings on Hegel, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Taylor rejects
naturalismNaturalism is divided into two philosophical stances:*Naturalized epistemology which focuses on epistemology: This stance is concerned with knowledge: what are methods for gaining trustworthy knowledge of the natural world? It is an epistemological view that is specifically concerned with practical...
, mediational
epistemologiesEpistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge...
, and what, following
Mikhail BakhtinMikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language...
, he calls "monological
consciousnessConsciousness is subjective experience or awareness or wakefulness or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena...
" (or the intellectualist's perspective).
Another one of his essays is on Wittgenstein's analysis of rule-following. In the essay "To follow a rule," Taylor explores why it is that people can fail to follow rules and what kind of
knowledgeKnowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained...
is it that allows a person to successfully follow a rule, such as directions to a party or the arrow on a sign. In the intellectualist tradition we would presuppose that to follow directions to a party that we must have in
consciousnessConsciousness is subjective experience or awareness or wakefulness or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena...
a set of
propositionA proposition is a sentence expressing something true or false. In philosophy, particularly in logic, a proposition is identified ontologically as an idea, concept, or abstraction whose token instances are patterns of symbols, marks, sounds, or strings of words...
s and
premisePremise can refer to:* Premise, a claim that is a reason for, or an objection against, some other claim as part of an argument...
s about how to follow directions. But how do we know whether or not the directions are adequate, i.e. what prevents
skepticismIn classical philosophy, skepticism is the teachings and the traits of the 'Skeptikoi', a school of philosophers of whom it was said that they 'asserted nothing but only opined.' In this sense, philosophical skepticism, or Pyrrhonism, is the philosophical position that one should suspend...
of the arrow on a sign or your friends directions to a party? To an intellectualist, before any rule can be followed, all of these issues must already be resolved.
Taylor argues that Wittgenstein's solution is the articulation of a background of understanding. This background is not more rules or premises, but what Wittgenstein often referred to as "forms of life." More specifically, Wittgenstein says in the
Philosophical InvestigationsPhilosophical Investigations is, along with the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, one of the two most influential works by the 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In it, Wittgenstein discusses numerous problems and puzzles in the fields of semantics, logic, philosophy of mathematics, and...
that "Obeying a rule is a practice." Since giving reasons for following a rule must end at some point, Taylor locates this in our embodied understandings of the world, that is in the practical mastery we incorporate into our bodies in the form of habits, dispositions, and tendencies. The parallel would be how we learn to drive a car. Driving a car appears to follow rules, but in fact we never need to refer to rules when speeding down the highway. Rather our attention is elsewhere and we seem to rely on the skills we have embodied to constantly adjust and respond to events that we encounter. Taylor says, "Our understanding itself is embodied. That is, our bodily know-how and the way we act and move can encode components of our understanding of self and world."
Taylor's point is to say that we don't need to posit the human being primarily as the subject of
representationsRepresentation is a term used in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science to refer to a hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality...
in order to understand rule-following behavior or something like driving down the highway. Following Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty,
Michael PolanyiMichael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath whose thought and work extended across physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.-Early life:Polanyi was born into a Jewish family...
, and of course Wittgenstein, Taylor argues that it is mistaken to presuppose that we are inherently cut off from the world and that our understanding of it is essentially mediated by representations. When we act, for example, we act with our bodies, whether linguistically or through grasping with the hand. But little of what is involved in our action, whether the goals of action or the rule specifying movement, is consciously articulated. In fact, he argues, it is only against an unarticulated background that representations can make sense to us at all.
The notion of background helps us approach how it is that we understand in our everyday mode of being. That is, when we walk we have a bodily understanding of where to place the foot, but normally we do not need rules to do this. Rather our ability to walk is a bodily knowledge. Instead, Taylor argues, our ability to follow rules is founded in the relationship between a background of practices and bodily habits. On occasion we do follow rules but Taylor wants us to consider that the rules do not contain the principles of their own applications. As such we need to understand the more complicated relationship between our bodily know-how and the social and historical "forms of life" which explain our actions and of which rules often only supply an after-the-fact explanation and description.
Communitarian critique of Liberalism
Taylor is associated with political theorists like
Michael WalzerMichael Walzer is a Jewish American political philosopher and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor of the political-intellectual quarterly Dissent...
and
Michael SandelMichael J. Sandel is a political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his critique of Rawls' Theory of Justice in his Liberalism and the Limits of Justice .-Education:...
, for their communitarian critique of liberal theory's understanding of the "self." Communitarians emphasize the importance of social and communal arrangements and institutions to the development of individual meaning and identity.
In his 1991 Massey Lecture, "The Malaise of Modernity," Taylor addressed what he saw as the central problems or "malaises" plaguing modern societies. He argued, among other things, that traditional liberal theory's conceptualization of individual identity is too abstract,
instrumentalistIn the philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that a concept or theory should be evaluated by how effectively it explains and predicts phenomena, as opposed to how accurately it describes objective reality....
, and one dimensional. For Taylor, early theorists from
John LockeJohn Locke was an English physician and philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political...
and
Thomas HobbesThomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.Hobbes also contributed to a diverse array of fields,...
to more modern standard bearers of liberal theory like
John RawlsJohn Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard...
and
Ronald DworkinRonald Dworkin, QC, FBA is an American philosopher of law. He is Jeremy Bentham Professor of Law and Philosophy at University College London, Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at New York University, and has taught previously at Yale Law School and the University of Oxford...
, have neglected the individual's ties to community and those people social theorist
George Herbert MeadGeorge Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology.- Biography :Mead was born February 27, 1863 in...
called significant others. A more realistic understanding of the "self" recognized what Taylor called "horizons of meaning" (drawn from Gadamer), the important background of social and dialogical relations with others, against which life choices gain importance and meaning. Without this background of meaning, life choices are vulnerable to an equal value, rendering them meaningless.
Politics
Taylor was a candidate for the social democratic
New Democratic PartyThe New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a social democratic political party in Canada. In the Canadian House of Commons, it holds a centre-left position in the Canadian political spectrum. The leader of the federal NDP is Jack Layton...
in
Mount RoyalMount Royal is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1925. Its population in 2006 was 98,888....
on three occasions in the 1960s, beginning with the
1962 federal electionThe Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 25th Parliament of Canada. When the election was called, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada of Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker had governed for four years with...
when he came in third place behind
LiberalThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is a major political party in Canada. The party sits between the centre-left and centre of the Canadian political spectrum. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada since the 2006 federal election...
Alan MacNaughtonAlan Aylesworth Macnaughton, PC, OC, QC was a Canadian parliamentarian and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons from 1963 to 1966.Macnaughton was born in Napanee, Ontario, and educated at Upper Canada College...
. He improved his standing in
1963The Canadian federal election of 1963 was held on April 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 26th Parliament of Canada...
, coming in second. Most famously, he also lost in the
1965 electionThe Canadian federal election of 1965 was held on November 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 27th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the House...
to newcomer and future
prime ministerThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
,
Pierre TrudeauJoseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, PC, CC, CH, QC, MSRC , was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968, to June 4, 1979, and from March 3, 1980, to June 30, 1984.Pierre Trudeau was a charismatic figure who, from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s,...
. This campaign garnered national attention since both Taylor and Trudeau were considered
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses his or her intelligence and analytical thinking, either in a professional or a personal capacity.-Terminology and endeavours:...
s and "
star candidateA star candidate refers to a high profile individual who has been recruited as a candidate by a political party. Star candidates have usually excelled in fields outside of politics such as academia, business, the media or journalism...
s". Taylor's fourth and final attempt to enter the
Canadian House of CommonsThe House of Commons is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate.
The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament .
Members are elected by simple...
was in the
1968 federal electionThe Canadian federal election of 1968 was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 28th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party won a majority government under its new leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau....
, when he came in second as an NDP candidate in the riding of
DollardDollard was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1953 to 1988.-History:This riding was created in 1952.In 1966, it was defined to consist of:* the City of Saint-Laurent;...
. In 2008, he endorsed the NDP candidate in Westmount—Ville-Marie,
Anne Lagacé DowsonAnne Lagacé Dowson is an award-winning radio journalist, who was a longtime host of CBC Radio's Radio Noon, a daily current affairs and phone-in program in Quebec. She has also hosted Home Run in Montreal, and was producer of C'est la Vie. She has guest hosted Cross Country Checkup and As It...
.
Interlocutors
- Hubert Dreyfus
Hubert Lederer Dreyfus , is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His main interests include phenomenology, existentialism and the philosophy of both psychology and literature, as well as the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. His younger brother, Dr...
- Bernard Williams
Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams FBA was an English moral philosopher, described by The Times as the "most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time"...
- Alasdair MacIntyre
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a leading philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...
- Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum is an American philosopher with a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics....
- Quentin Skinner
Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London.-Biography:...
- Talal Asad
Talal Asad is an anthropologist at the City University of New York who has made important theoretical contributions to Post-Colonialism, Christianity, Islam, and Ritual Studies and has recently called for, and initiated, an anthropology of Secularism...
- Arjun Appadurai
Arjun Appadurai is a contemporary social-cultural anthropologist focusing on modernity and globalization, based in New York .Appadurai was born in Bombay, India in 1949 and educated in India before coming to the United States. He graduated from St...
- Paul Berman
Paul Berman is an American author and journalist who writes on politics and literature. His articles have been published in The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review and Slate...
- William E. Connolly
William E. Connolly is a political theorist and the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is known for his work on democracy, pluralism, and political theory. Connolly’s writings have pushed the edge of political theory for the last three decades...
- Robert Bellah
- Richard Rorty
Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher. He had a long and diverse career in Philosophy, Humanities, and Literature departments...
Selected Books by Taylor
- 1964. The Explanation of Behavior.
- 1975. Hegel.
- 1979. Hegel and Modern Society.
- 1985. Philosophical Papers (2 volumes).
- 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Harvard University Press
- 1992. The Malaise of Modernity, being the published version of Taylor's Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures are a prestigious annual event in Canada, in which a noted Canadian or international scholar gives a week-long series of lectures on a political, cultural or philosophical topic. They were created in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada...
. Reprinted in the U.S. as The Ethics of Authenticity. Harvard University Press
- 1994. Multiculturalism: Examining The Politics of Recognition.
- 1995. Philosophical Arguments. Harvard University Press
- 1999. A Catholic Modernity?.
- 2002. Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited. Harvard University Press
- 2004. Modern Social Imaginaries.
- 2007. A Secular Age
A Secular Age is a book written by the philosopher Charles Taylor, and published in 2007 by Harvard University Press.-Summary:In recent years, secularism has become an important topic in the humanities and social sciences...
. Harvard University Press
External links
Videos online
«Rencontre avec Charles Taylor» (25/11/2001) ; Chasseurs d’idées,
Télé-QuébecTélé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec...
.
«La religion dans la Cité des modernes : un divorce sans issue?» (14/10/2006) ; Charles Taylor and
Pierre ManentPierre Manent teaches political philosophy at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in the Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron. Every fall, he is also a visiting teacher at Boston College at the department of Political Science....
, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal,
«Les grandes conférences Argument».
{{Templeton Prize Laureates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Charles}}