“Charles Taylor is a philosopher of broad reach and many talents, but his most striking talent is a gift for interpreting different traditions, cultures and philosophies to one another…[This book is] full of good things.” —New York Times Book ReviewEverywhere we hear talk of decline, of a world that was better once, maybe fifty years ago, maybe centuries ago, but certainly before modernity drew us along its dubious path. While some lament the slide of West...

“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.” —Martha Nussbaum, New RepublicIn this extensive inquiry into the sources of modern selfhood, Charles Taylor demonstrates just how rich and precious those resources are. The modern turn to subjectivity, with its attendant rejection of an objective order of reaso...

The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

It is, without question, an incident that defined an era in sports entertainment and marked - if not tainted - the legacies of two of the greatest professional wrestlers in modern history. It was a memorable and some say disgraceful event that is universally known today by just one word: Montreal.The host city of the 1997 Survivor Series provided the location for a scandal the likes of which sports entertainment had never seen before and almost certainly never will again. Yet fifte...

A Times Literary Supplement Best Book of the YearA major new work by Charles Taylor: the long-awaited follow-up to The Language Animal, exploring the Romantic poetics central to his theory of language.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...

“We have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human.” —John Cottingham, The TabletIn seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being, both as individuals and as a society. In his new book setting forth decades of thought, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process.For centuries, philos...

A New York Times Notable Book of the YearA Times Literary Supplement Book of the YearA Globe and Mail Best Book of the YearA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the YearA Tablet Best Book of the YearWinner of a Christianity Today Book Award“One finds big nuggets of insight, useful to almost anybody with an interest in the progress of human society.” —The Economist

"Sayings of the Jewish Fathers" is a collection of teachings, ethical maxims, and sayings attributed to Jewish sages from the early centuries BCE. This collection is also known as "Pirkei Avot" in Hebrew. However, I must clarify that "Sayings of the Jewish Fathers" is not written by Charles Taylor."Pirkei Avot" is a compilation of ethical and moral teachings from various Jewish scholars and sages, primarily from the Second Temple period (approximately 5th century BCE to 1st century CE). Th...

“Movie criticism's Dostoyevsky . . . Taylor reveals a national identity forged from the innocence we claim to have lost but never had in the first place.” --Steve Erickson, author of ZerovilleWhen we think of '70s cinema, we think of classics like The Godfather, Taxi Driver,and The Wild Bunch . . . but the riches found in the overlooked B movies of the time, rolled out wherever they might find an audience, unexpectedly t...

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, an...

Is God a delusion? Barrister Charles Taylor examines the evidence in this very readable book. His findings will be controversial to some but offer hope and insight to others.We are the only species unable to live in harmony with our environment and each other. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs is nothing compared with our impact on the Earth. We are currently responsible for “The Sixth Great Extinction” of wildlife. Religious terrorism is widespread, though current atrocities ...

A major and comprehensive study of the philosophy of Hegel, his place in the history of ideas, and his continuing relevance and importance. Professor Taylor relates Hegel to the earlier history of philosophy and, more particularly, to the central intellectual and spiritual issues of his own time. He sees these in terms of a pervasive tension between the evolving ideals of individuality and self-realization on the one hand, and on the other a deeply-felt need to find significance in a wider...