Charles Taylor, CC, BA, MA, Ph.D, FRSC (born November 5, 1931) is a Canadian philosopher known for his viewpoints on morality and modern western identity of individuals and groups. He is often classified as a communitarian.
His principal philosophical standpoint is that of "exclusive humanism"—a humanism without reference to the transcendent, especially as it relates to cultural, social, or political life.
Taylor was educated at the McGill University (B.A. in History in 1952) and at Oxford (B.A. in Philoso ...
In order to understand the stance that Taylor presents in Sources of the Self" one should undersatand his philosophical background, especially his writings on Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty.
As something of a "post-analytic" philosopher, Taylor rejects naturalism, mediational epistemologies, and what he calls "monological consciousness" (or the intellectualist's perspective).
One of his most interesting essays is on Wittgenstein's analysis of rule-following. In the essay "To follow a rule," Taylor explores wh ...
