Charles Taylor Quotes
Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher and one of the most influential figures in late-twentieth-century political philosophy and the history of ideas. Sources of the Self traced the long history of the modern moral identity from Augustine and the Reformation through the Enlightenment and Romanticism, while The Ethics of Authenticity and Multiculturalism gave a sympathetic but critical defense of the modern ideal of authentic selfhood and the politics of recognition. The quotes below are attributed to Charles Taylor, organized by topic.
Charles Taylor on God
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Attributed to Charles Taylor:
“A secular age is one in which the eclipse of all goals beyond human flourishing becomes conceivable.”
Charles Taylor on Knowledge
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“Human Agency and Language (Cambridge: 1985), pp. 9-10”
The earlier views, those of Hobbes or Locke for instance, saw language as an instrument, and understood meaning in terms of designation. Discovering the meaning of words is finding what ideas or things they stood for. ... By contrast, a hermeneutical view requires a very different conception. If we are partly constituted by our self-understanding, and this in turn can be very different according t -
“To know who I am is a species of knowing where I stand. My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I can try to determine from case to case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be done, or what I endorse or oppose. In other words, it is the horizon within which I am capable of taking a stand.”
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (ed. Cambridge University Press, 1992) - ISBN: 9780521429498 -
“Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (ed. Cambridge University Press, 1992) - ISBN: 9780521429498”
To know who I am is a species of knowing where I stand. My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I can try to determine from case to case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be done, or what I endorse or oppose. In other words, it is the horizon within which I am capable of taking a stand.
Charles Taylor on Mind
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Attributed to Charles Taylor:
“We are selves only in that certain issues matter for us.”
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Attributed to Charles Taylor:
“Identity is essentially formed through dialogue with others, not in monological self-assertion.”
Charles Taylor on Virtue
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Attributed to Charles Taylor:
“To know who I am is to know where I stand in moral space.”
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Attributed to Charles Taylor:
“The ideal of authenticity is a moral standard we may fail to meet, not an excuse for self-absorption.”