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Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Paperback)

by Charles Taylor (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This book is primarily a historical account of the modernist protest against the disengaged and instrumental modes of thought and action that arose when theistically grounded morality crumbled, but that themselves focused too little upon our inner life, i.e., our powers of creative imagination and the substantive goods of ordinary life, which Taylor alleges give meaning to human life. Associating each ideology with a particular conception of our identity as selves, he defends the modern view, keeping in mind that self-realization must recognize that some things are important beyond the self. Taylor rambles somewhat and often talks about " the good," as though human beings were fungible in their capacities for appreciation and action; but the wealth of illustrative material and frequent insights are thought-provoking. For scholarly collections.
- Robert Hoffman, York Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Taylor has taken on the most delicate and exacting of philosophical questions, the question of who we are and how we should live...and he has made this an adventure of self-discovery for his reader. To have accomplished so much is an important philosophical achievement. (New Republic )

Sources of the Self is in every sense a large book: in length and in the range of what it covers, but above all in the generosity and breadth of its sympathies and its interest in humanity...Few books on such large subjects are so engaging.
--Bernard Williams (New York Review of Books )

A magnificent account, full, fair, well read, well written, complicated and high spirited--a credit, one might say, to the modern self that is capable of plumbing the depths of its own heritage in such a generous way.
--Jeremy Waldron (Times Literary Supplement )

Surely one of the most important philosophical works of the last quarter of a century.
--Jerome Bruner

For sociologists, there is no more important philosopher writing in the world today than Charles Taylor.
--Alan Wolfe (Contemporary Sociology )

Undoubtedly one of the most significant works in moral philosophy and the history of ideas to appear in recent decades.
--Frances S. Adeney (Theology Today )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 1, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0674824261
  • ISBN-13: 978-0674824263
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,860 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity
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Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity 4.6 out of 5 stars (16)
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The Ethics of Authenticity
4% buy
The Ethics of Authenticity 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
$24.40
Modern Social Imaginaries (Public Planet Books)
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Modern Social Imaginaries (Public Planet Books) 4.8 out of 5 stars (6)
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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
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81 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Tapestry of philosophies with flashes of brilliance, July 1, 2002
By Peter A. Kindle (Kansas City, Missouri) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Taylor took two years to write this book; it took me nearly as long to read it! It is a five-part tome of 525 pages of text and 71 pages of footnotes. In this entire collection I cannot remember a single section that could be read without my complete concentration. Quiet and solitude are minimal prerequisites before tackling this book - a good grasp of the history of philosophy wouldn't hurt either.

The sources to which Taylor refers are the moral ideals, ideas, and understandings that have dominated in various historical eras. Taylor's basic premise is rather simple, "we are only our selves insofar as we move in a certain space of questions, as we seek and find an orientation to the good (p. 34)." His purpose is not to specify the good, that is, he does not seek to set normative definitions or qualifications. His purpose is to show that self-definition requires a framework in which to be understood.

The historical course of his narrative begins with the classical perspective. In this view, self was dependent on a vision of the True or the Ideal. The hierarchical nature of reality presupposed in classical thought meant that self-definition was subservient to the whole. Traditional Christian thought embraced the classical perspective and the preference for self-definition by externals.

Obviously, this short sketch of classical thought seems to be absurdly irrelevant in our contemporary world. Self is definitely not defined in relation to externals, but by an extreme interiority, complete rejection of hierarchical schemes, and the assumption that reality is defined empirically rather than conceptually. This book traces the transformation of the classical perspective through history in each of these areas: the movement toward inwardness, the affirmation of ordinary life, and the voice of nature.

I found Taylor's historical analysis of more value than his contemporary application; however, I have to admit that the latter was quite difficult for me to follow due to my lack of exposure to the material. In essence he claims that the near universal adoption of benevolence and justice as our predominant ethical values have insufficient foundation. Radical subjectivity, radical equality, and radical acceptance of nature do not provide a horizon capable of defending contemporary values.

Even though Taylor stops short of offering an external standard, his thorough critique of contemporary inconsistencies is excellent. I cannot really recommend this book to everyone because it is clearly written to a graduate audience. If you are not well-read in philosophy, theology, or psychology, it may not be worth your time.

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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic!, March 28, 2005
Sources of the Self is an exceptional piece of scholarship. In SOS, Taylor engages in a course of philosophical anthropology to demonstrate that our understanding of the self as interior is by no means universal. For Taylor, understandings of the self are inextricably linked to our understandings of the good. Thus, self-understanding is directed by evolving conceptions of the source and location of the good. This idea has been lost, according to Taylor, because of the narrow conception of the good in our modern world and the naturalist suppression of moral ontology.

Taylor defends this argument in two ways. First, he provides a strong argument that the self exists within inescapable moral frameworks. "To know who you are" Taylor argues, "is to be oriented in moral space." These frameworks are composed of hierarchical moral distinctions (i.e., some things are viewed as better than, or more important than others -- for instance, in our time, the notion of respect for persons). Second, Taylor argues that previous goods have been victim to historical suppression.

The bulk of the text is aimed at re-articulating historically suppressed goods. This illustration provides a fascinating romp through the history of ideas from Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Rousseau and MANY others, as well an interesting pieces about cultural history (e.g., the Puritans, art theory, etc).

One caution -- this is NOT an easy read. The argument itself is in the first few chapters, the remander is illustration. But keep the argument in mind the whole way. You will have to work to get through it - but it is well worth it! You will never see the self the same way again.
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62 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An articulate philosophy of man, October 1, 2000
With 'Sources of the Self' Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has written a seminal work along the lines of Ernst Cassirer's classic 'An Essay on Man'.

Deploring the minimal ethics of modernity and dissatisfied with post-modern nihilism, Taylor positions his moral theory in the Aristotelean tradition of 'ethos'. But Taylor does not embrace a pre-defined, teleological destiny. Rather, his premise is that in articulating 'the self' we will discover who we are, what we are supposed to do and where we are going.

Taylor's quest into what made man into what he is, is traced back to classic Greek thought and Augustinian theology. Subsequently the author takes us to early modernity: from Locke, via Neoplatonists like Shaftesbury, to the period of Romanticism. Eventually this odyssee of the mind is germinating into present-day man as a self-expressing creature.

The richness of Taylor's argumentation is often dazzling; here speaks a man of wide and deep erudition, an authoritative voice of intellectual history, seemingly equally at home in science, history and the arts.

In the post-modern wilderness of de-construction, Taylor's articulate and subtle history of mentality is an intellectual joy.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self
The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has written two extended studies of what many people describe as modernity. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Robin Friedman

5.0 out of 5 stars Sources of the Self book
The book i purchased was in wonderful condition. It arrived in a timely manner, and I had no problems. I would recommend purchasing books from this seller.
Published 3 months ago by Julie A. Kress

4.0 out of 5 stars Exhausting, but enlightening!
Another reviewer wrote: "Taylor took two years to write this book; it took me nearly as long to read it! It is a five-part tome of 525 pages of text and 71 pages of footnotes. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Shaytaan's Most Wanted

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential book for anyone interested in following up the Socratic maxim: "Know thyself!"
Charles Taylor is among the most learned of contemporary philosophers, and has the gift of taking a familiar story or idea from the history of philosophy and giving it new life,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Nathan Andersen

3.0 out of 5 stars Great, BUT
I read this very popular, yet scholarly, and extolled book when it first was published, and found it elegant, helpful, and problematic. Read more
Published on March 17, 2006 by D. S. Heersink

5.0 out of 5 stars "immersion" course in the ideas
Someone told philosophy is simply a specific genre of European literature; I would tend to agree if permitted to add that to validate itself as "philosophy" the opus has to... Read more
Published on February 14, 2005 by Derzila

5.0 out of 5 stars A Substantive Theory of the Good
Taylor would like to revitalize the ancients' emphasis on what he calls a substantive theory of the good. Read more
Published on February 5, 2005 by Ryan L. Lanham

5.0 out of 5 stars From community to self- and the evolution of ethics...
Taylor is an important voice in today's philosophical community- one that refuses to give in to the excesses of either postmodern relativism or extreme conservatism. Read more
Published on November 8, 2004 by Nicq MacDonald

5.0 out of 5 stars moral phenomenology
Ethics/morality always seems to be relegated to a marginal position, not because it isn't important, but because, as John Searle might say "it's too damn hard. Read more
Published on September 10, 2004 by Justin Pack

4.0 out of 5 stars Sources, not answers
Taylor offers us an invigorating critique of the Western individualist tradition since the 17th century. Read more
Published on June 24, 2001 by D. David Bew

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