Elusive Difference in Taylor’s Conception of Authentic Identity
Keywords:
authenticity, moral sources, Charles Taylor, identity, differenceAbstract
Based on the tradition of Western intellectual history, Charles Taylor draws authenticity as a life good of self-fulfilment linked with the constitution of self-identity. According to Taylor, Authenticity has explicit roots in the moral sources of modernity that he sketches in Sources of the Self. The defence of authenticity as a valid moral ideal that Taylor proposes in The Ethics of Authenticity is based on the commonality of moral sources in Taylor’s description of modernity. Taylor opens a rethinking of authenticity such that it is not self-enclosed and evasive of public articulation to be subjected to critical evaluation. This paper critically engages with Taylor’s account of authenticity and its historical sources in his works. The paper argues that Taylor’s authenticity is entangled in the notion of identity and its quest for fundamental ontology, which restricts his conception of authenticity both in its own right and in the political experience of deliverance from the modern predicament. The paper contends that any notion of authenticity must be sympathetic to Taylor’s criticism of self-determining freedom. However, authenticity must also be compassionate to ‘difference’ to accommodate uniqueness and plurality adequately.
Keywords: authenticity, moral sources, Charles Taylor, identity, difference
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