Description
Book SynopsisThe essays in this collection reflect most of Taylor’s career-spanning concerns—language, ideas of the self, political participation, the nature of modernity. Taylor articulates what is at stake in difficult philosophical disputes, offering analyses of liberal democracy, welfare economics, and multiculturalism with real political significance.
Trade ReviewAmong the leading philosophers of our time, Charles Taylor stands out for the sheer breadth of his interests and influence...Illuminating and rewarding. -- David Miller * Times Literary Supplement *
The book is really a showcase for Taylor's wide-ranging interests, which include not only such mainstream philosophical concerns as the nature and validity of reason but topical issues such as ecology, welfare, social justice, and cultural diversity, among others. In all of these, Taylor brings his fine philosophical sensibility to bear, adapting insights from Hegel, Herder, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and contemporary philosophers. -- Leon H. Brody * Library Journal *
[This] book is structured by a tightly knit agenda, one in which the form and function of philosophical reasoning itself are at stake. This is not just a collection
of philosophical arguments. It is a series of medications
about the ability of reason to carry out tasks assigned to it since the beginnings of Western philosophy. -- Nicholas H. Smith * Philosophy and Social Criticism *
This is a splendid book, perhaps Charles Taylor's best so far, and that is high praise...[T]his is an instructively organized and coherent book. Three introductory essays advance theses about philosophical enquiry; then follow three that pursue enquiry thus defined into the nature of language and its place in human life; the next three draw on the findings of that enquiry in order to characterize key aspects of social activity and relationships; and the final four essays bring that characterization to bear upon issues of political philosophy. -- Alasdair MacIntyre * Philosophical Quarterly *
Taylor is a highly distinctive thinker...a figure of very broad intellectual (and indeed emotional and political) sympathies and interests. -- John Dunn * Times Higher Education Supplement *
A deeply engaging collection...[Taylor] combines a practical interest in current political topics...with a continuing quest for the deepest meanings of language, knowledge, and human beings. -- Stan Persky * Toronto Globe and Mail *
Table of Contents1. Overcoming Epistemology 2. The Validity of Transcendental Arguments 3. Explanation and Practical Reason 4. Lichtung or Lebensform: Parallels between Heidegger and Wittgenstein 5. The Importance of Herder 6. Heidegger, Language, and Ecology 7. Irreducibly Social Goods 8. Comparison, History, Truth 9. To Follow a Rule 10. Cross-Purposes: The Liberal-Communitarian Debate 11. Invoking Civil Society 12. The Politics of Recognition 13. Liberal Politics and the Public Sphere Notes Credits Index
