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

  • From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 23:31:58 +0900

On 5/26/06, Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have the book and I'm half way through the first chapter.  I don't know
why the man can't just say what he thinks.  He seems so scared I'll catch
him in some incautious phrasing.  Jesus.


I know what you mean. To me, however, stylististically speaking Taylor resembles some of my other favorite philosophers, Wittgenstein (in _Philosophical Investigations_), J.L. Austin (in _How to do Things with Words_) and Stanley Cavell (in _Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome_ or _The Claim of Reason_). All eschew the authority that claims to have finished an argument and present us, instead, with what are, in effect, examples of thinking out loud. They thus allow us to follow the way their thinking develops instead of presenting an argument as if it were a mathematical proof, logically impeccable and leading to a definite conclusion. I know this way of doing philosophy takes some getting used to, especially to those of us schooled to seek Decartes' self-evident Truth. To me, however, it is a style very fitting, indeed, for philosophy as practiced by examples of Taylor's modern selves, for whom every thought is at best a partial approximation.

Cheers,

John

--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN

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