Charles Taylor (philosopher) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Taylor
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Taylor in 2019
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Charles Margrave Taylor
November 5, 1931 |
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy
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| Thesis | Explanation in Social Science (1961) |
| Doctoral advisor | Sir Isaiah Berlin |
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Charles Margrave Taylor (born November 5, 1931) is a famous Canadian philosopher. He is a professor at McGill University in Montreal. He is well-known for his ideas on political philosophy, how we study people in society, and the history of philosophy.
His important work has won him several major awards. These include the Kyoto Prize, the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy, and the John W. Kluge Prize. In 2007, Taylor worked on a special commission in Quebec. This group looked at how different cultures can live together peacefully. He has also written about how we think, how we understand things, and how we act.
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Life Story
Charles Margrave Taylor was born in Montreal, Quebec, on November 5, 1931. His mother was French-speaking and Catholic. His father was English-speaking and Protestant. Charles grew up speaking both languages.
His father, Walter Margrave Taylor, worked in the steel industry. His mother, Simone Marguerite Beaubien, was a dressmaker. Charles went to Selwyn House School and Trinity College School. He then studied history at McGill University. He earned his first degree in 1952.
He continued his studies at the University of Oxford in England. He earned another degree in philosophy, politics, and economics in 1955. Later, he received his PhD in 1961. While at Oxford, he helped start a campaign against nuclear weapons in 1956.
Charles Taylor became a professor at the University of Oxford. He taught about social and political ideas. For many years, he was also a professor at McGill University in Montreal. He is now a professor emeritus there, which means he is retired but still connected to the university. After retiring from McGill, he also taught at Northwestern University in Illinois.
In 1995, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. This is one of Canada's highest honors. In 2000, he received the Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. In 2007, he won the Templeton Prize. This award is for discoveries about spiritual realities. It came with a large cash prize.
In 2007, he and Gérard Bouchard led a special group. They studied how to make "reasonable accommodations" for different cultures in Quebec. This means finding ways for people from various backgrounds to live together well.
In 2008, he received the Kyoto Prize. This prize is sometimes called the "Japanese Nobel." In 2015, he shared the Kluge Prize with another philosopher, Jürgen Habermas. In 2016, he won the first $1-million Berggruen Prize. This award honors thinkers whose ideas help us understand humanity better.
His Ideas
Charles Taylor says he is a "monomaniac." This means he focuses on one main goal. His goal is to understand what it means to be human. He wants to develop a strong "philosophical anthropology." This is a way of studying humans from a philosophical point of view.
To understand Taylor's ideas, it helps to know his background. He studied the works of thinkers like Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Taylor does not agree with ideas that try to study humans like natural science. He also disagrees with formal ways of understanding knowledge.
He believes that our understanding of the world is not just about facts. It is also about our "tacit background." This means the unspoken knowledge we have from our experiences. For example, we follow rules not just by knowing them, but by practicing them.
Taylor says that understanding rules is like a "practice." We learn to follow directions through habits and tendencies. This is similar to how we learn to ride a bike. We don't just read instructions; we do it.
Taylor's View on Naturalism
Taylor defines "naturalism" as theories that try to study humans like natural sciences. He believes this approach is often wrong. He started criticizing naturalism when he was a student at Oxford.
His early work, The Explanation of Behaviour (1964), criticized a type of psychology called "behaviourism." This theory tried to explain human actions only through observable behaviors. Taylor argued that this view was too simple.
He also criticized naturalism in other areas. He wrote about how it affected political science. He also looked at how naturalism influenced modern ideas about language. In his book Sources of the Self (1989), he found that naturalism sometimes led to wrong ideas about who we are as individuals.
Taylor and Hermeneutics
While criticizing naturalism, Taylor also developed his own approach. He turned to "hermeneutics" and "phenomenology." These are ways of thinking that focus on understanding meanings.
The hermeneutic tradition believes that human understanding is about figuring out meanings. It's not just about finding facts. Taylor's own philosophy is often called "engaged hermeneutics." This means he believes we understand the world by actively interpreting it.
He supports thinkers like Wilhelm Dilthey and Hans-Georg Gadamer. His work shows how important it is to interpret and understand the world around us.
Ideas on Community and Freedom
Taylor is known for his "communitarian" ideas. He, along with other thinkers like Michael Sandel, believes that society plays a big role in who we become. Communitarians stress that our identity and what gives our lives meaning come from our communities.
In his 1991 book The Malaise of Modernity, Taylor argued that many political thinkers have overlooked this. He said they often focus too much on individuals alone. Taylor believes that to truly understand ourselves, we must see how we fit into our social backgrounds. Our choices and their meaning come from the society we live in.
Religion and Society
Later in his career, Taylor focused on the philosophy of religion. He wrote about "A Catholic Modernity" and "Varieties of Religion Today."
His most important book in this area is A Secular Age. In this book, he challenges the idea that religion is disappearing as the modern world grows. He points out that religion has not vanished. Instead, it has changed and grown in many places. Taylor explores what "secularization" really means in our modern world. He also deepens his ideas about how our modern world affects our morals, politics, and spiritual lives.
Politics
Taylor was involved in politics in Canada. He ran for the New Democratic Party (NDP) several times in the 1960s. This is a social democratic political party. He tried to become a member of the House of Commons of Canada. He ran in federal elections in 1962, 1963, 1965, and 1968. In 1965, he famously lost to Pierre Trudeau, who later became Prime Minister.
Taylor also served as a vice president for the federal NDP. He was also the president of its Quebec section.
In 2010, Taylor said that multiculturalism was still developing. He believed that tackling Islamophobia in Canada was an important challenge. In his 2020 book Reconstructing Democracy, he suggests ways to make democracies stronger. He believes this can happen by getting citizens more involved in their communities.
Published Works
Here are some of the books Charles Taylor has written or helped write:
- Multiculturalism and "The Politics of Recognition". 1992.
- Rapprocher les solitudes: écrits sur le fédéralisme et le nationalisme au Canada [Reconciling the Solitudes: Writings on Canadian Federalism and Nationalism] (in French). 1992.
- English translation: Reconciling the Solitudes: Essays on Canadian Federalism and Nationalism. 1993.
- Road to Democracy: Human Rights and Human Development in Thailand. With Muntarbhorn, Vitit. 1994.
- Identitet, Frihet och Gemenskap: Politisk-Filosofiska Texter (in Swedish). 1995.
- La liberté des modernes (in French). 1997.
- A Catholic Modernity? 1999.
- Prizivanje gradjanskog drustva [Invoking Civil Society] (in Serbo-Croatian).
- Laïcité et liberté de conscience (in French). With Maclure, Jocelyn. 2010.
- English translation: Secularism and Freedom of Conscience. With Maclure, Jocelyn. 2011.
- Church and People: Disjunctions in a Secular Age. Edited with Casanova, José; McLean, George F. 2012.
- Democracia Republicana / Republican Democracy. 2012.
- Boundaries of Toleration. Edited with Stepan, Alfred C. 2014.
- Incanto e Disincanto. Secolarità e Laicità in Occidente (in Italian). 2014.
- La Democrazia e i Suoi Dilemmi (in Italian). 2014.
- Retrieving Realism. With Dreyfus, Hubert. 2015.
- Reconstructing Democracy. How Citizens Are Building from the Ground Up. With Nanz, Patrizia; Beaubien Taylor, Madeleine. 2020.
See also
In Spanish: Charles Taylor (filósofo) para niños
- List of Canadian philosophers
- List of people from Montreal
