Primary Bibliography: Books

  • The Explanation of Behaviour (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964)
  • The Pattern of Politics (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970).
  • Part of chapter 7 reprinted in Apex of Power, Thomas A. Hockin, ed. (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall, 1971) pp. 108-13.
  • Chapter 8, "A Canadian Future," reprinted in his Reconciling the Solitudes, pp. 23-39.
  • Erklärung und Interpretation in den Wissenschaften vom Menschen. Vorwort von Garbis Kortian (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1975)
  • Hegel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975)
  • German translation: Hegel (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1978)
  • Swedish translation: Hegel (Stockholm: Symposion Bokförlag, 1986)
  • Chinese translation:黑格尔 / Heige'er. Translated by Zhang Guoqing, Zhu Jindong yi. (译林出版社, Nanjing : Yi lin chu ban she, 2002.)
  • Hegel and Modern Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979)
  • Japanese translation: (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1980)
  • Spanish translation: Hegel v la sociedad moderna (Mexico: Fondo de cultura economica, 1983)
  • Italian translation: Hegel e la società moderna (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1984)
  • Chinese translation: 黑格尔与现代社会 / Heige'er yu xian dai she hui (Taipei: Modern Foreign Press, 1988 / 吉林出版集团有限责任公司; Changchun Shi : Jilin chu ban ji tuan you xian ze ren gong si, 2009, translated by M. XU Wenrui).
  • Swedish translation: Hegel och det moderna samhället (Göteborg: Röda Bokförlaget, 1991)
  • French translation: Hegel et la société moderne (Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l'Université Paris: Éditions du Cerf Laval, 1998)
  • Persian translation: (Tehran: Nashr-nov Press, 2001)
  • Reprint: Hegel and Modern Society (Cambridge Philosophy Classics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 
    Abstract:
    This rich study explores the elements of Hegel's social and political thought that are most relevant to our society today. Combating the prevailing post-World War II stereotype of Hegel as a proto-fascist, Charles Taylor argues that Hegel aimed not to deny the rights of individuality but to synthesise them with the intrinsic good of community membership. Hegel's goal of a society of free individuals whose social activity is expressive of who they are seems an even more distant goal now, and Taylor's discussion has renewed relevance for our increasingly globalised and industrialised society. This classic work is presented in a fresh series livery for the twenty-first century with a specially commissioned new preface written by Frederick Neuhouser.
  • Social Theory As Practice (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983)
  • Pp. 1-27 reprinted as "Social Theory and Practice," in his Philosophy and the Human Sciences, pp. 91-115.
  • Pp. 28-47 reprinted as "Understanding and Ethnocentricity," in his Philosophy and the Human Sciences, pp. 116-133.
  • Pp. 48-67 reprinted as "The Concept of a Person," in his Human Agency and Language, pp. 97-114.
  • Human Agency and Language: Philosophical Papers 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). [Google Books]
  • Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). [Google Books]
  • Negative Freiheit? Zur Kritik des neuzeitlichen Individualismus. Nachwort von Axel Honneth (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988)
  • Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989). [Google Books]
  • Italian translation: Radici dell'Io. La costruzione dell'identità moderna (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1993)
  • German translation: Quellen des Selbst: Die Entstehung der neuzeitlichen Identität (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1994)
  • Spanish translation: Fuentes del yo: la construcción de la identidad (Barcelona: Paidós, 1996)
  • Brazilian Portuguese translation: Fontes do Self: A construção da Identidade Moderna (São Paulo, Loyola, 1997)
  • French translation: Les sources du moi: la formation de l'identité moderne (Montréal: Boréal, 1998)
  • Chinese translation: 自我的根源 : 现代认同的形成 / Zi wo de gen yuan : xian dai ren tong de xing cheng. Translated by Han Zhen, et. al. (译林出版社, Nanjing : Yi lin chu ban she, 2001.)
  • Serbian Translation Izvori sopstva: stvaranje modernog identiteta, (Akademska knjiga, Novi Sad, 2008)
  • Greek translation Piges tou eautou (Athens:Indiktos, 2007).
  • Japanese translation: 自我の源泉 : 近代的アイデンティティの形成 / Jiga no Gensen: Kindaiteki Aidentiti no Keisei. (Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 2010). Translated by Kiyoshi Shimokawa, Tetsu Sakurai and Tomohiko Tanaka.
  • Croatian translation: Izvori sebstva. Razvoj modernog identiteta, trans. by Marina Miladinov, Naklada Breza, 2011.
  • The Malaise of Modernity (Concord, Ontario: Anansi, 1991). Republished as The Ethics of Authenticity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) PDF
  • French translation: Grandeur et misère de la modernité (Montréal: Bellamin, 1992)
  • French translation: La Malaise de la Modernité (Paris: Le Cerf, 1994)
  • Italian translation: Il disagio della modernità, (Roma: Editori Laterza, 1994)
  • Dutch translation: De malaise van de Moderniteit (Kok Agora/Pelckmans, 1994)
  • Spanish translation: La ética de la Autenticidad (Barcelona: Paidós, 1994)
  • Finnish translation: Autenttisuuden etiikk (Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 1995)
  • German translation: Das Unbehagen an der Monderne (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1995)
  • Turkish translation: Modernligin Sikintilari (Istanbul: Ayrinti, 1996)
  • Polish translation: Etyka Autentycznoci (Kraków: Znak, 1996)
  • Chinese translation: 现代性之隐忧 / Xian Dai Xing Zhi Yin You. Translated by M. Cheng Lian. (Beijing: 2001); 本真性的倫理 / Ben zhen xing de lun li. (上海三聯書店, Shanghai Shi : Shanghai san lian shu dian, 2012).
  • Slovenian Translation: “Nelagodna sodobnost,” Claritas, Ljubljana, Študentska založba, 2000
  • Serbian Translation: Bolest modernog doba, Beogradski krug, Beograd, 2002.
  • Ukrainian translation: Etyka avtentychnosti, (Kyiv: Dukh i litera, 2002)
  • Norwegian translation: Autentisitetens etikk. Trans. Petter Nafstad. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk 1998
  • Czech translation: Etika autenticity (Praha: Filosofia, 2001).
  • Croatian translation: Etika autentičnosti. Trans. Dafne Vidanec, Verbum, Split 2009.
  • Greek translation: Oidysanexies tis neoterikotitas (Athens: Ekkremes, 2006).
  • Portuguese translation: A Ética Da Autenticidade [The Ethics of Authenticity] . Trans. Talyta Carvalho. Realizações Editora, 2011.
  • Multiculturalism and 'The Politics of Recognition', Amy Gutmann, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992)
  • Republished with additional commentaries as Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, Amy Gutmann, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994)
  • Reprinted in his Philosophical Arguments pp. 225-56.
  • Pp. 25-40 reprinted in Campus Wars: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference, John Arthur and Amy Shapiro, eds. (Boulder: Westview, 1995) pp. 249-63.
  • German translation: Multikulturalismus und die Politik der Anerkennung (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1993)
  • Italian translation: Multiculturalismo: La politica del riconoscimento (Milano: Anabasi, 1993)
  • Spanish translation: El multiculturalismo y 'La politica de reconocimiento' (Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1993)
  • Dutch translation: Multiculturalisme (Boom, 1995)
  • Swedish translation: Det mångkulturella samhället och erkännandets politik (Göteborg: Daidalos, 1995)
  • Italian translation: Multiculturalismo: Lotte per il riconoscimento ( Milano: Feltrinelli, 1998)
  • French translation: Multiculturalisme: Différence et démocratie (Paris: Aubier, 1994)
  • Japanese translation: Maruchikaruchurarizumu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996)
  • Turkish translation: Cokkültürcülük (Istanbul: Yapi Kredi, 1996)
  • Slovenian Translation: “Politika priznanja”, Nova revija, Letn. 24 [i. e. 25], št. 285/286 (jan./feb. 2006), str. 217-247.
  • Serbian Translation: "Multikulturalizam i politika priznanja" in Habitus, Novi Sad, No. 9-10/2003-4, pp. 179-2001
  • Rapprocher les solitudes: écrits sur le fédéralisme et le nationalisme au Canada, Guy Laforest, ed. (Sainte-Foy, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1992)
  • English edition: Reconciling the Solitudes: Essays in Canadian Federalism and Nationalism, Guy Laforest, ed. (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993)
  • Spanish translation: Acercar las soledades: federalismo y nacionalismo en Canada (Donostia: Tercera Prensa, 1999)
  • [with Vitit Muntarbhorn] Roads to Democracy: Human Rights and Democratic Development in Thailand (Bangkok and Montreal: International Centre for Human Rights and Development, 1994)
  • Philosophical Arguments (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995)
  • Spanish translation: Argumentos Filosóficos (Barcelona: Paidós, 1997)
  • Brazilian Portuguese translation: Argumentos Filosóficos (São Paulo, Loyola, 2000)
  • Identitet, Frihet och Gemenskap: Politisk-Filosofiska Texter, Harald Grimen, ed. (Göteborg: Daidalos, 1995)
  • De politieke Cultur van de Moderniteit (The Hague: Kok Agora, 1996)
  • La liberté des modernes. Essais choisis, traduits et présenté par Philippe de Lara (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997)
  • A Catholic Modernity? Charles Taylor's Marianist Award Lecture, with responses by William M. Shea, Rosemary Luling Haughton, George Marsden, and Jean Bethke Elshtain, James L. Heft, ed. (Oxford University Press, 1999)
  • Reprinted in Believing scholars: ten Catholic intellectuals, ed. by James L. Heft (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005).
  • Italian translation (of Taylor’s Lecture only) in La modernità della religione, Paolo Costa ed. (Rome: Meltemi, 2004), pp. 81-109
  • Prizivanje gradjanskog drustva [Invoking Civil Society], (ed.) Obrad Savic, Beogradski krug, Beograd, 2000, pp. 409.
  • Wieviel Gemeinschaft braucht die Demokratie? Aufsätze zur politische Philosophie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2002).
  • Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002)
  • German translation: Die Formen des Religiösen in der Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2002)
  • Polish translation: Oblicza religii dzisiaj (Cracow: Znak, 2002)
  • Italian translation in La modernità della religione, Paolo Costa ed. (Rome: Meltemi, 2004), pp. 81-109.
  • Dutch Translation:  Wat betekent religie vandaag? ed. and trans. by Guido Vanheeswijck (Kapellen: Pelckmans. Kampen: Klement, 2003).
  • Spanish Translation: Las variedades de la religión hoy (Barcelona: Paidós, 2003).
  • Modern Social Imaginaries, Dilip Gaonkar, Jane Kramer, Benjamin Lee and Michael Warner, eds. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004). [Google Books].
  • Italian translation: Gli immaginari sociali moderni, Paolo Costa, ed. (Rome: Meltemi, 2005)
  • Chinese translation: 現代性中的社會想像 / Xian dai xing zhong de she hui xiang xiang. Translated by Shang-yuan Li. (商周出版 : 家庭傳媒城邦分公司發行 ; 農學總經銷, Tai bei shi : Shang zhou chu ban : Jia ting chuan mei cheng bang fen gong si fa xing ; [Tai bei xian xin dian shi] : Nong xue zong jing xiao, 2008.01.)
  • Spanish Translation: Imaginarios sociales modernos (Barcelona: Paidós, 2006).
  • A Secular Age. Cambridge: Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
  • Italian translation: L’età secolare, Paolo Costa, ed. (Milan: Feltrinelli, 2009)
  • Czech translation: Sekulární Věk. Dilemata Moderní Společnosti. Vybrané Kapitoly [A Secular Age, selections] . Translated by Ondřej Štěch and Tomáš Chudý. Praha: Filosofia, 2013. 
    Abstract:
    Co to znamená, když řekneme, že žijeme v sekulární době? V odpovědi na tuto otázku Charles Taylor dokládá, jakým zásadním způsobem se v průběhu posledních staletí změnilo postavení náboženství v západních společnostech. Český překlad vybraných kapitol Taylorova rozsáhlého díla ukazuje historický vývoj sekulárních aspektů moderní doby a objasňuje, jak se tyto změny promítají do naší současnosti a jaké důsledky to s sebou nese.  
  • Spanish Translation: La Era Secular. Translated by Marta Beltrán Bahón and Ricardo Garcia Pérez. Barcelona: Gedisa, 2015.
    Abstract:
    En los últimos siglos Occidente ha ensanchado su abanico de opciones en cuestiones de creencia, ya sean religiosas, ateas u otras difíciles de clasificar. Iniciando un proceso paulatino de declive de la fe y retirada de la religión de la vida pública. Este retroceso supone un cambio impactante si pensamos en el papel que hasta hace poco jugaban las iglesias cristianas en el mundo Occidental. ¿Por qué ha sucedido todo esto? ¿Cuáles son los rasgos del nuevo paisaje espiritual? La era secular es el ensayo escrito más ambicioso y sobresaliente sobre el complejo proceso de secularización en Occidente que aún sigue en marcha. El filósofo Charles Taylor desgrana, en este segundo volumen, el cambio de las condiciones de la fe que desde la Ilustración socavaron las viejas formas y sentaron las bases de una nueva alternativa humanista. Sin embargo, este debilitamiento de las representaciones anteriores no ha sido incompatible con la persistencia de cierto anhelo de religiosidad, lo cual se traduce en nuestros días, en el florecimiento de múltiples alternativas a veces contradictorias y en un novedoso pluralismo en cuestión de espiritualidad.
  • French translation: L'Âge Séculier. Translated by Patrick Savidan. Montréal: Boréal; Paris: Seuil, 2011.
  • German translation: Ein säkulares Zeitalter. Translated by Joachim Schulte. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2010.
  • Serbian translation: Doba Sekularizacije. Translated by Slobodan Damnjanović and Slobodan Divjak. Beograd: Albatros plus : Službeni glasnik, 2011.
  • [With Jocelyn Maclure]. Laïcité et liberté de conscience. Montreal: Boréal, 2010. [Publisher's Page]
  • English Translation: Secularism and Freedom of Conscience, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011. [Publisher's Page]
  • Spanish Translation: Laicidad y libertad de conciencia.  Alianza Editorial, 2011.
  • German Translation: „Laizität und Gewissensfreiheit“. Aus dem Französischen von Eva Buddeberg und Robin Celikates. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011.
  • Italian Translation: La Scommessa Del Laico, translated by Federica Giardini. Roma: Laterza, 2013.
  • Dilemmas and Connections: Selected Essays. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. [Google Books]
  • Democracia Repblicana / Republican Democracy. Renato Cristi and J. Ricardo Tranjan, editors. Santiago, Chile: LOM Ediciones, 2012. In Spanish and English. http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/taylor-charles.shtml
    Abstract:
    In this essay Charles Taylor defines what is essential to democracy beyond its institutional manifestations—namely, representative institutions, popular suffrage, and political parties. Taylor supports a republican democratic theory, which he opposes to neoliberal democracy. Neoliberalism views democracy instrumentally and attaches no intrinsic value to political participation and self-government. Following Tocqueville, Taylor emphasizes the identification of citizens with the common good while rejecting monolithic constructions of a Rousseauean general will. Taylor seeks to outline a republican democratic theory that responds to contemporary challenges, particularly those that relate to the exclusion of cultural minorities in increasingly multicultural societies. The essential characteristic of the Tocquevillian compromise attained by Taylor is a sincere and innovative appreciation of diversity. First presented in Chile in 1986, Democracia Republicana / Republican Democracy foresees a republican solution for the problems generated by the neoliberal democratic system inherited from Pinochet’s dictatorship. The essay was missing for many years and was only recently discovered. It is published here for the first time in both Spanish and English. There is also an appendix called "Charles Taylor and Republican Democracy" by Renato Cristi and J. Ricardo Tranjan.
  •  Boundaries of Toleration [edited with Alfred C. Stepan]. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16566-2/boundaries-of-toleration
    Abstract:
    How can people of diverse religious, ethnic, and linguistic allegiances and identities live together without committing violence, inflicting suffering, or oppressing each other? In this volume, contributors explore the limits of toleration and suggest we think beyond them to mutual respect. Salman Rushdie reflects on the once tolerant Sufi-Hindu culture of Kashmir. Ira Katznelson follows with an intellectual history of toleration as a layered institution in the West. Charles Taylor advances a new approach to secularism in our multicultural world, and Akeel Bilgrami responds by offering context and caution to that approach. Nadia Urbinati explores why Cicero’s humanist ideal of Concord was not used in response to religious discord. The volume concludes with a refutation of the claim that toleration was invented in the West. Rajeev Bhargava writes on Asoka’s India, and Karen Barkey explores toleration within the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. Sudipta Kaviraj examines accommodations and conflicts in India, and Alfred Stepan highlights contributions to toleration and multiple democratic secularisms in such Muslim-majority countries as Indonesia and Senegal.
  • Incanto e Disincanto. Secolarità e Laicità in Occidente. Translated by Paolo Costa. Bologna: EDB, 2014. In Italian.
    An original essay by Taylor, in which parts of the essays contained in Dilemmas and Connections are re-writed and translated (by Paolo Costa.
  • La Democrazia e i Suoi Dilemmi. Translated by Paolo Costa. Parma: Diabasis, 2014. In Italian.
    Contents:
    "Some Conditions of a Viable Democracy" (translated as Democrazia e comunità),
    "Several Reflections on the Theme of Solidarity" (translated as Democrazia e solidarietà),
    "Democratic Exclusion (and Its Remedies?)" (translated as Democrazia ed esclusione).
  • Church and People: Disjunctions in a Secular Age. Christian Philosophical Studies, vol. I, [edited with José Casanova and George F. McLean]. Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2012. http://www.crvp.org/book/Series08/128710%20ChurchPeople.pdf.
  • [With Hubert L. Dreyfus]. Retrieving Realism. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2015. 
  • Dutch Translation: Het Realisme Herwonnen [Retrieving Realism] . Translated by Michiel Meijer. Zoetermeer: Klement, 2016.
  • The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. 
    Abstract:
    In this book, Charles Taylor explains linguistic holism to people who believe language needs to be thought of as bits of information. According to one influential view of language, one that originated with Hobbes, Locke, and Condillac, language serves to encode information and to communicate it. This theory has been rendered more sophisticated over the last two centuries, but it still gives a central place to the encoding of information. The thesis of Taylor's new book is that this view neglects crucial features of our language capacity. Sometimes language serves not just to encode information, but also shapes what it purports to describe. This language is more than merely 'descriptive;' it plays a 'constitutive' role.
  • German Translation: Das Sprachbegabte Tier - Grundzüge Des Menschlichen Sprachvermögens. Translated by Joachim Schulte. Suhrkamp, 2017.
    Abstract:
    Seit Jahrhunderten wird in der Philosophie über die Natur der Sprache gestritten. Für die rationalistisch-empiristische Tradition in der Folge von Hobbes, Locke und Condillac ist sie ein Werkzeug, das Menschen erfunden haben, um Informationen auszutauschen. In seinem neuen Buch bekennt sich Charles Taylor zum gegnerischen Lager der Romantik um Hamann, Herder und Humboldt und zeigt, dass der rationalistisch-empiristische Ansatz etwas Entscheidendes übersieht: Sprache beschreibt nicht bloß, sie erschafft Bedeutung, formt alle menschliche Erfahrung und ist integraler Bestandteil unseres individuellen Selbst.   Taylor geht jedoch noch einen Schritt über das Denken der deutschen Romantik hinaus und entwirft eine umfassende Theorie der Sprache im Sinne des linguistischen Holismus: Sprache ist ein geistiges Phänomen, aber sie kommt auch in künstlerischen Darstellungen, Gesten, Stimmen, Haltungen zum Ausdruck und kennt daher keinen Gegensatz von Körper und Geist. Indem er dieses grundlegende Vermögen des »sprachbegabten Tiers« erhellt, wirft Taylor ein neues Licht darauf, was es heißt, ein Mensch zu sein.
  • Taylor, Charles, Madeline Beaubein Taylor, and Patrizia Nanz. Reconstructing Democracy: How Citizens are Building from the Ground Up. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674244627
    Abstract:
    Across the world, democracies are suffering from a disconnect between the people and political elites. In communities where jobs and industry are scarce, many feel the government is incapable of understanding their needs or addressing their problems. The resulting frustration has fueled the success of destabilizing demagogues. To reverse this pattern and restore responsible government, we need to reinvigorate democracy at the local level. But what does that mean? Drawing on examples of successful community building in cities large and small, from a shrinking village in rural Austria to a neglected section of San Diego, Reconstructing Democracy makes a powerful case for re-engaging citizens. It highlights innovative grassroots projects and shows how local activists can form alliances and discover their own power to solve problems.
  • German Translation: Das Wird Unsere Stadt: Bürger:Innen Erneuern Die Demokratie [Reconstructing Democracy: How Citizens Are Building from the Ground Up] . Translated by Rita Seuss. Edition Körber-Stiftung: Hamburg, 2022. In German.
    Abstract:
    Nur gemeinsam können Bevölkerung und Politik die Probleme des Landes lösen. Was wir alle dafür tun müssen? Die Expertise der Bürger:innen vor Ort ernst nehmen, Veränderung wagen und kommunale Politik als Grundlage eines neuen demokratischen Selbstverständnisses fördern. Patrizia Nanz, Charles Taylor und Madeleine Beaubien Taylor machen klar: Die Beteiligung von Bürger:innen muss endlich mehr sein als ein Feigenblatt der repräsentativen Demokratie. Denn erfolgreiche und innovative Projekte entstehen bottom-up, in einem Zusammenspiel unterschiedlicher Ideen und Kompetenzen, wie die Autor:innen in zahlreichen Beispielen erfolgreicher Beteiligungsprozesse darlegen.
  • Taylor, Charles and Jonathan Guilbault. Avenues of Faith: Conversations with Jonathan Guilbault. Translated by Yanette Shalter. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2020. 120. https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481312509/avenues-of-faith/
    Abstract:
    Death opens the gates to resurrection. The pathways to faith are diverse, but all carry components of death and renewal. In Avenues of Faith: Conversations with Jonathan Guilbault, Charles Taylor takes readers through a handful of books that played a crucial role in shaping his posture as a believer, a process that involved leaving the old behind and embracing the new.   In a dynamic interview-style structure, Taylor answers questions from Jonathan Guilbault about how each book has informed his thought. The five sections of Avenues of Faith briefly introduce authors and their principal works before delving into the associated discussion. Taylor and Guilbault engage Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, Friedrich Hölderlin’s Poems, Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Brother Émile’s Faithful to the Future: Listening to Yves Congar.   By exploring themes such as faith, the church, freedom, language, philosophy, and more, this book engages both literary enthusiasts and spiritual seekers. Scholars of Taylor will recognize the philosopher’s continuation of his reflections on modernity as he expresses his faith. Avenues of Faith gives readers unprecedented access to a world-renowned philosopher’s reflections on the literary masterpieces that have shaped his life and scholarship and that continue to stand the test of time.
  • Taylor, Coharles, Craig Calhoun, and Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar. Degenerations of Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022. 368.
    Abstract:
    Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy’s other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fracture, and suggest paths to democratic renewal.
    In Charles Taylor’s phrase, democracy is a process, not an end state. Taylor documents creeping disempowerment of citizens, failures of inclusion, and widespread efforts to suppress democratic participation, and he calls for renewing community. Craig Calhoun explores the impact of disruption, inequality, and transformation in democracy’s social foundations. He reminds us that democracies depend on republican constitutions as well as popular will, and that solidarity and voice must be achieved at large scales as well as locally.
    Taylor and Calhoun together examine how ideals like meritocracy and authenticity have become problems for equality and solidarity, the need for stronger articulation of the idea of public good, and the challenges of thinking “big” without always thinking “centralization.”
    Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar points out that even well-designed institutions will not integrate everyone, and inequality and precarity make matters worse. He calls for democracies to be prepared for violence and disorder at their margins—and to treat them with justice, not oppression.
    The authors call for bold action building on projects like Black Lives Matter and the Green New Deal. Policy is not enough to save democracy; it will take movements.
  • Taylor, Charles. Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2024. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674296084
    Abstract:
    The Language Animal, Charles Taylor’s 2016 account of human linguistic capacity, was a revelation, toppling scholarly conventions and illuminating our most fundamental selves. But, as Taylor noted in that work, there was much more to be said. Cosmic Connections continues Taylor’s exploration of Romantic and post-Romantic responses to disenchantment and innovations in language.
    Reacting to the fall of cosmic orders that were at once metaphysical and moral, the Romantics used the symbols and music of poetry to recover contact with reality beyond fragmented existence. They sought to overcome disenchantment and groped toward a new meaning of life. Their accomplishments have been extended by post-Romantic generations into the present day. Taylor’s magisterial work takes us from Hölderlin, Novalis, Keats, and Shelley to Hopkins, Rilke, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé, and on to Eliot, Miłosz, and beyond.
    In seeking deeper understanding and a different orientation to life, the language of poetry is not merely a pleasurable presentation of doctrines already elaborated elsewhere. Rather, Taylor insists, poetry persuades us through the experience of connection. The resulting conviction is very different from that gained through the force of argument. By its very nature, poetry’s reasoning will often be incomplete, tentative, and enigmatic. But at the same time, its insight is too moving—too obviously true—to be ignored.