Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity"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. 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."--Provided by publisher. |
Contents
Inescapable Frameworks | 3 |
The Self in Moral Space | 41 |
Ethics of Inarticulacy | 53 |
Moral Sources | 105 |
Inwardness | 109 |
Moral Topography | 111 |
Platos SelfMastery | 115 |
In Interiore Homine | 127 |
Fractured Horizons | 305 |
Radical Enlightenment | 321 |
Nature as Source | 355 |
The Expressivist Turn | 368 |
Our Victorian Contemporaries | 405 |
Visions of the PostRomantic | 419 |
Epiphanies of Modernism | 456 |
The Conflicts of Modernity | 495 |
Descartess Disengaged Reason | 143 |
Lockes Punctual Self | 159 |
Exploring lHumaine Condition | 177 |
Inner Nature | 185 |
A Digression on Historical Explanation | 199 |
PART 111 | 204 |
The Affirmation of Ordinary Life | 209 |
God Loveth Adverbs | 211 |
Rationalized Christianity | 234 |
Moral Sentiments | 248 |
The Providential Order | 269 |
The Culture of Modernity | 285 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aristotle articulation aspiration Augustine Augustinian Baudelaire become belief benevolence called Cambridge Cambridge Platonists central chap Christian conception course crucial culture defined Deism Deist demands Descartes dignity discussion disengaged reason distinction doctrine dominant Dostoyevsky eighteenth century Enlightenment epiphany Essay ethic expression expressivism expressivist feeling force formulation freedom fulfilment God's Hegel higher human Hutcheson hypergoods Ibid idea ideal important inner instrumental involves issue John Locke Kant kind language lives Locke M. H. Abrams meaning Michel Foucault modern identity modernist moral sources naturalist nature Nietzsche notion object ourselves outlook Oxford Paris Paul Celan philosophy Plato poetry political question quoted radical rational reality relation religion religious Romantic Romanticism Rousseau seems sense sentiments Shaftesbury significance society soul spiritual stance subjectivism T. E. Hulme theory things thought tradition transfiguration turn understanding University Press utilitarianism vision whole