[lit-ideas] Re: SOS or Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self

  • From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 10:39:32 -0700

John McCreery wrote:

But when Paul writes, "this guy is going to give us the
necessary and sufficient conditions of the 'modern identity" I think
that he's flat wrong. I take Taylor to be a careful writer who chooses
particular terms deliberately and see Taylor sketching a prototype
that illustrates "various facets" of selves that exemplify the modern
condition but does not amount to a classical definition in terms of
necessary and sufficient conditions.

You misunderstand me John. Anyone would have, no doubt, because I didn't make myself clear. You asked why Taylor used the verb 'explore' and not some other and one of the others you suggested was 'define.' I fastened on that and wrote:

If he’d said, e.g., ‘I want to define…,’ I’m sure I’d have been ready to look at what followed in a different light: this guy is going to give us the necessary and sufficient conditions of the ‘modern identity,’…

Well, maybe I wasn't all that unclear. I tried to say that if he'd used the word 'define' I'd have thought (the thought being introduced by the ':') that he was going to give us the necessary and sufficient conditions of the modern identity (and I'd have been less interested in his project).

Robert Paul
The Reed Institute
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