Background
Charles Taylor was born on November 5, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a son of Walter Margrave Taylor and Simone Beaubien.
2015
Charles Taylor and Dr. Wolfram Eilenberger talk about the question "Can you still be religious today?"
2016
Charles Taylor with the Berggruen Prize.
2016
476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018, United States
Charles Taylor and host of CNN Global Public Square, Fareed Zakaria attend The Berggruen Prize Gala Honoring Philosopher Charles Taylor at New York Public Library.
95 Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Antoine, Westmount, QC H3Y 2H8, Canada
Selwyn House School where Charles Taylor studied.
845 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4, Canada
McGill University where Charles Taylor received a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Oxford OX1 3BJ, United Kingdom
Balliol College where Charles Taylor studied.
The Kyoto Prize that Charles Taylor received in 2008.
The National Order of Quebec that Charles Taylor received in 2000.
(A major and comprehensive study of the philosophy of Hege...)
A major and comprehensive study of the philosophy of Hegel, his place in the history of ideas, and his continuing relevance and importance. Professor Taylor relates Hegel to the earlier history of philosophy and, more particularly, to the central intellectual and spiritual issues of his own time. He sees these in terms of a pervasive tension between the evolving ideals of individuality and self-realization on the one hand, and on the other a deeply-felt need to find significance in a wider community.
https://www.amazon.com/Hegel-Charles-Taylor-ebook/dp/B00E3URHC2/?tag=2022091-20
1975
(This rich study explores the elements of Hegel's social a...)
This rich study explores the elements of Hegel's social and political thought that are most relevant to our society today. Combating the prevailing post-World War II stereotype of Hegel as a proto-fascist, Charles Taylor argues that Hegel aimed not to deny the rights of individuality but to synthesise them with the intrinsic good of community membership. Hegel's goal of a society of free individuals whose social activity is expressive of who they are seems an even more distant goal now, and Taylor's discussion has renewed relevance for our increasingly globalised and industrialised society. This classic work is presented in a fresh series livery for the twenty-first century with a specially commissioned new preface written by Frederick Neuhouser.
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Society-Cambridge-Philosophy-Classics-ebook/dp/B015WJ16SI/?tag=2022091-20
1979
(Charles Taylor has been one of the most original and infl...)
Charles Taylor has been one of the most original and influential figures in contemporary philosophy: his 'philosophical anthropology' spans an unusually wide range of theoretical interests and draws creatively on both Anglo-American and Continental traditions in philosophy. A selection of his published papers is presented here in two volumes, structured to indicate the direction and essential unity of the work.
https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Papers-Human-Agency-Language/dp/0521317509/?tag=2022091-20
1985
(In this extensive inquiry into the sources of modern self...)
In this extensive inquiry into the sources of modern selfhood, Charles Taylor demonstrates just how rich and precious those resources are. The modern turn to subjectivity, with its attendant rejection of an objective order of reason, has led – it seems to many – to mere subjectivism at the mildest and to sheer nihilism at the worst. Many critics believe that the modern order has no moral backbone and has proved corrosive to all that might foster human good. Taylor rejects this view. He argues that, properly understood, our modern notion of the self provides a framework that more than compensates for the abandonment of substantive notions of rationality.
https://www.amazon.com/Sources-Self-Making-Modern-Identity/dp/0674824261/?tag=2022091-20
1989
(In Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor focuses on the ke...)
In Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor focuses on the key modern concept of self-fulfillment, often attacked as the central support of what Christopher Lasch has called the culture of narcissism. To Taylor, self-fulfillment, although often expressed in self-centered ways, isn't necessarily a rejection of traditional values and social commitment; it also reflects something authentic and valuable in modern culture. Only by distinguishing what is good in this modern striving from what is socially and politically dangerous, Taylor says, can our age be made to deliver its promise.
https://www.amazon.com/Malaise-Modernity-Cbc-Massey-Lectures/dp/0887845207/?tag=2022091-20
1992
(Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel...)
Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel and brings to his reflections on nationalism and federalism the fruits of a more universal philosophical discourse rooted in the Enlightenment and before. Its hallmarks are terms such as recognition, self-determination, atomism, and modernity. Notwithstanding his long involvement in philosophical reflections, Taylor has avoided the role of the disengaged intellectual, always remaining close to political action and debate in Canada.
https://www.amazon.com/Reconciling-Solitudes-Canadian-Federalism-Nationalism/dp/0773511059/?tag=2022091-20
1993
(Charles Taylor is one of the most important English-langu...)
Charles Taylor is one of the most important English-language philosophers at work today; he is also unique in the philosophical community in applying his ideas on language and epistemology to social theory and political problems. In this book Taylor brings together some of his best essays, including "Overcoming Epistemology," "The Validity of Transcendental Argument," "Irreducibly Social Goods," and "The Politics of Recognition." As usual, his arguments are trenchant, straddling the length and breadth of contemporary philosophy and public discourse.
https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Arguments-Charles-Taylor/dp/0674664779/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(A hundred years after William James delivered the celebra...)
A hundred years after William James delivered the celebrated lectures that became The Varieties of Religious Experience, one of the foremost thinkers in the English-speaking world returns to the questions posed in James's masterpiece to clarify the circumstances and conditions of religion in our day. An elegant mix of the philosophy and sociology of religion, Charles Taylor's powerful book maintains a clear perspective on James's work in its historical and cultural contexts, while casting a new and revealing light upon the present.
https://www.amazon.com/Varieties-Religion-Today-Revisited-Institute/dp/0674012534/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(In A Secular Age, Taylor more evidently foregrounded his ...)
In A Secular Age, Taylor more evidently foregrounded his Catholic faith, and there are several essays here that further explore that faith. Overall, this is a hopeful book, showing how, while acknowledging the force of religion and the persistence of violence and folly, we nonetheless have the power to move forward once we have given up the brittle pretensions of a narrow rationalism.
https://www.amazon.com/Dilemmas-Connections-Selected-Charles-Taylor/dp/0674055322/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Se...)
In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being, both as individuals and as a society. In his new book setting forth decades of thought, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process.
https://www.amazon.com/Language-Animal-Shape-Linguistic-Capacity/dp/067466020X/?tag=2022091-20
2016
Charles Taylor was born on November 5, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a son of Walter Margrave Taylor and Simone Beaubien.
Charles Taylor studied at Selwyn House School from 1941 to 1946. Later he entered McGill University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1952. Taylor also attended Balliol College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 1952. He received his Master of Arts degree in 1960 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1961.
Charles Taylor started his career as a Professor of Social and Political Theory at McGill University in 1961. In 1976, he took up a post of a Chichele Chair at All Souls College and held this post until 1982. Taylor also was a Board of Trustees Professor of Law and Philosophy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 2007, Taylor served with Gérard Bouchard on the Bouchard–Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodation with regard to cultural differences in the province of Quebec.
Charles Taylor published his first book The Explanation of Behaviour about the psychological theory of behaviorism in 1964. Later he published such books as Hegel and Modern Society, The Malaise of Modernity and Reconciling the Solitudes. Taylor published a large number of shorter works on topics as varied as freedom, democracy, nationalism, human rights, philosophical anthropology, cross-cultural understanding, moral theory, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, and epistemology. His latest book The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity was published in 2016.
(A hundred years after William James delivered the celebra...)
2002(Charles Taylor has been one of the most original and infl...)
1985(Charles Taylor is one of the most important English-langu...)
1995(Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel...)
1993(In Malaise of Modernity, Charles Taylor focuses on the ke...)
1992(In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Se...)
2016(A major and comprehensive study of the philosophy of Hege...)
1975(In A Secular Age, Taylor more evidently foregrounded his ...)
2011(In this extensive inquiry into the sources of modern self...)
1989(This rich study explores the elements of Hegel's social a...)
1979Charles Taylor made a great contribution to the development of the concept of a post-secular society, in which the ideas of justice and love of traditional religions will play a big role. He seems to suggest that humans necessarily have some orientation toward what he calls “transcendence” – some yearning for meaning that goes above and beyond the merely human.
Charles Taylor was active in the Canadian New Democratic Party, which promotes a social-democratic platform. He also ran a number of times (unsuccessfully) as one of the candidates for the federal Parliament. In 2010, Taylor said multiculturalism was a work in progress that faced challenges. He identified tackling Islamophobia in Canada as the next challenge.
It is hard to situate Charles Taylor within any particular philosophical school. He is often described as bridging the gap between Anglo-American and Continental styles of philosophy. He is part of an influential intellectual tradition of Canadian idealism. He is also interested in hermeneutics.
Taylor criticized liberalism and the theory of individual. He maintains that a person’s sense of self is not something that can be achieved alone: it depends on recognition from others for its realization. Conversely, the failure to have one’s identity accurately acknowledged by others can distort or damage a person’s sense of who he is. Taylor also rejects naturalism and formalist epistemology. He said that naturalism as a family of various, often quite diverse theories that all hold "the ambition to model the study of man on the natural sciences."
Quotations:
"We define our identity always in dialogue with, sometimes in struggle against, the things our significant others want to see in us. Even after we outgrow some of these others – our parents, for instance – and they disappear from our lives, the conversation with them continues within us as long as we live."
"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."
"We become full human agents, capable of understanding ourselves, and hence of defining our identity, through our acquisition of rich human languages of expression."
"There is a certain way of being human that is my way. I am called upon to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's life. But this notion gives a new importance to being true to myself. If I am not, I miss the point of my life; I miss what being human is for me."
Charles Taylor was a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also was a fellow of All Souls College.
Quotes from others about the person
Quentin Skinner: At most points in his discussion, however, Taylor speaks about true beliefs in a more familiar and restricted way. When he asks whether historians should take account of the fact that a particular belief is true when seeking to explain it, what he generally seems to be asking is whether we should take account of the fact that the belief in question accords with our own best current beliefs about the matter at issue.
Charles Taylor married Alba Romer Taylor in 1956. The marriage produced five daughters. Alba died in 1990.