Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern IdentityIn 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. The major insight of Sources of the Self is that modern subjectivity, in all its epistemological, aesthetic, and political ramifications, has its roots in ideas of human good. After first arguing that contemporary philosophers have ignored how self and good connect, the author defines the modern identity by describing its genesis. His effort to uncover and map our moral sources leads to novel interpretations of most of the figures and movements in the modern tradition. Taylor shows that the modern turn inward is not disastrous but is in fact the result of our long efforts to define and reach the good. At the heart of this definition he finds what he calls the affirmation of ordinary life, a value which has decisively if not completely replaced an older conception of reason as connected to a hierarchy based on birth and wealth. In telling the story of a revolution whose proponents have been Augustine, Montaigne, Luther, and a host of others, Taylor’s goal is in part to make sure we do not lose sight of their goal and endanger all that has been achieved. Sources of the Self provides a decisive defense of the modern order and a sharp rebuff to its critics. |
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It tells us, for instance, that human beings are creatures of God and made in his image, or that they are immortal souls, or that they are all emanations of divine fire, or that they are all rational agents and thus have a dignity which ...
It tells us, for instance, that human beings are creatures of God and made in his image, or that they are immortal souls, or that they are all emanations of divine fire, or that they are all rational agents and thus have a dignity which ...
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... for life discussed above, would appeal to the theistic account I referred to and invoke our common status as God's creatures; others would reject this for a purely secular account and perhaps invoke the dignity of rational life.
... for life discussed above, would appeal to the theistic account I referred to and invoke our common status as God's creatures; others would reject this for a purely secular account and perhaps invoke the dignity of rational life.
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... and objectifying the world around us; or the Kantian picture of ourselves as pure rational agents; or the Romantic picture just mentioned, where we understand ourselves in terms of organic metaphors and a concept of self-expression.
... and objectifying the world around us; or the Kantian picture of ourselves as pure rational agents; or the Romantic picture just mentioned, where we understand ourselves in terms of organic metaphors and a concept of self-expression.
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Alongside ethics of fame, of rational mastery and control, of the transformation of the will, there has grown up in the last two centuries a distinction based on vision and expressive power. There is a set of ideas and intuitions, ...
Alongside ethics of fame, of rational mastery and control, of the transformation of the will, there has grown up in the last two centuries a distinction based on vision and expressive power. There is a set of ideas and intuitions, ...
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We shall see in Part II how this neutral and “bleached” sense of the person corresponds to Locke's aspiration to a disengaged subject of rational control. We have here a paradigm example of what I discussed in the previous section: how ...
We shall see in Part II how this neutral and “bleached” sense of the person corresponds to Locke's aspiration to a disengaged subject of rational control. We have here a paradigm example of what I discussed in the previous section: how ...
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Contents
Moral Sources | |
PART II | |
Inwardness | |
Rationalized Christianity | |
Moral Sentiments | |
The Providential Order | |
The Culture of Modernity | |
PART IV | |
Fractured Horizons | |
Radical Enlightenment | |
Nature as Source | |
Moral Topography | |
Platos SelfMastery | |
In Interiore Homine | |
Descartess Disengaged Reason | |
Lockes Punctual Self | |
Exploring lHumaine Condition | |
Inner Nature | |
A Digression on Historical Explanation | |
PART III | |
God Loveth Adverbs | |
The Expressivist Turn | |
PART V | |
Our Victorian Contemporaries | |
Visions of the PostRomantic | |
Epiphanies of Modernism | |
The Conflicts of Modernity | |
Notes | |
Index | |
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action affirmation articulation become belief benevolence bring called Cambridge central century Christian comes common conception concerned connection continuity course crucial culture defined demands described desire direction discussion disengaged distinctions doctrine dominant earlier Enlightenment ethic existence experience expression fact feel force formulation freedom give God’s higher human idea ideal identity important instance involves issue kind language later lives Locke meaning mind modern moral moral sources motivation move nature notion object ordinary original ourselves outlook particular perhaps person philosophy picture political possible practices principle question quoted radical rational reality reason recognize reflected relation religion respect Romantic seems seen sense significance society soul sources speak spiritual stance theory things thought tradition true turn understanding University University Press vision whole