[lit-ideas] Re: SOS or Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 17:00:28 +0900
On 5/19/06, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
In explaining what a Rottweiler
is, I'm not sure one is defining 'Rottweiler.' Of course to get anywhere
in talking about Rottweilers with your students you'd want them to know
that a Rottweiler was a kind of dog, and not a kind of mushroom or
beetle. But the matrix '—is a kind of dog,' itself has to be understood
by those to whom you're explaining this. And even I, a Terrier lover,
can give a richer account of Rottweilers than the bare information that
they're dogs, i.e., an account that moves in the direction of
'precision,' in a way that mere categorization does not.
Bravo, noble sage. A great example. It makes a nice frame for what I
am trying to say, more laboriously, about Taylor. Here we have an
example of a style of argumentation that is neither merely a rough
account nor a rigorous definition, but a thoughtful articulation that
accepts its own imperfection and asks, nonetheless, for respectful
attention. In this respect it embodies the modern self that Taylor
describes, the one whose predicament Phil so elegantly captures when
he writes,
"Taylor, however, also tells the story of disenchantment, where
frameworks once operated unquestioned, and often times implicitly, but,
with modernity, have been questioned and challenged.
"'... frameworks today are problematic. This vague term points towards a
relatively open disjunction of attitudes. What is common to them all is
the sense that no framework is shared by everyone, can be taken for
granted as the framework tout court, can sink to the phenomenological
status of unquestioned fact.' (p.17)"
Taylor's traditional selves deploy a traditional logic rooted in full
confidence that their premises are valid. His modern selves must find
some other way to argue, since their premises are always in question.
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
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