AUTHOR'S BIO
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor is Professor emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University in Montréal and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. His most recent book is A Secular Age.
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Solidarity in a Pluralist Age
Charles Taylor Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2010-09-27Democratic societies cannot function beyond a certain level of mutual distrust or a sense on the part of some members that other members have abandoned them. But loss of identity and increasing individualism – a focus on one’s own ambitions and economic prosperity – are now undermining the very basis of what a modern democratic society is. ... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 1 Read: 20745
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Block Thinking
Charles Taylor Series: Against the Current 2007-09-10The greatest cultural threat to Europe doesn't come from Islam, but from "block thinking" about Islam. By imposing a false unity on Islam, block thinkers strengthen their counterparts on the other side--Osama bin Laden and his ilk--who think the same way about Christians and Jews.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 26898
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Seeking Sovereignty in Europe and Iraq
Charles Taylor Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2003-09-29Two very different efforts at "nation building" are galvanizing world attention: America's struggle to construct a viable polity in Iraq and the EU's ambitious project of making Europe into a true "Union." While many issues involved are distinct, a "democratic deficit" looms large in both undertakings. Why and what will it take to overcome it? ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read:
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The Other and Ourselves: Is Multi-culturalism Inherently Relativist?
Charles Taylor Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2002-07-19Understanding "the other" will pose the 21 st century's greatest social challenge. The days are over when "Westerners" could consider their experience and culture as the norm and other cultures merely as earlier stages in the West's development. Nowadays, most of the West senses the arrogant presumption at the heart of that old belief. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 22157
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The Alchemy of Violence
Charles Taylor Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2001-07-18As Slobodan Milosevic awaits his war crimes trial in the Hague, it may be salutary to ask why is it that categorical violence – genocide, say, or ethnic cleansing of the type seen in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo – is recurred so often in our “civilized” century? The question seems unanswerable. Some people seek explanations in biology: because young men often perpetrate violence, hormones are held as the cause. But it is hard to believe that it all comes down to testosterone. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 16742
