Charles Taylor "ethics Of Authenticity" Ch 3-4

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What is “disengaged rationality”?

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Disengaged rationality is the Cartesian view that the power of thought is able to detach itself from the received orders of the world and construct new orders which meet the standards demanded by knowledge, understanding, and certainty. (25)
Or, it is the attempt to step back from one’s personal biases and use ‘pure reason’ to be completely neutral.
“God’s-eye view” –Nietzsche
“View from nowhere” –Thomas Nagel

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What is the “new form of inwardness” which comes about with the modern age?

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The new form of inwardness is when we come to think of ourselves as beings with inner depths, rather than looking to a higher power as the sole source for our morals. (26) Product of Romanticism.

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What is “self-determining freedom”?

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Self-determining freedom is “the idea that I am free when I decide for myself what concerns me, rather than being shaped by external influences” (27). Has often been confused with authenticity, giving rise to a source of the deviant forms of authenticity.

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What does Taylor mean by identity?

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Our identity is constucted of who we are and where we have come from. This background gives sense to our goals, passions etc. Additionally, if part of one’s identity is only attainable through a relationship with another than that person becomes “internal to my identity” (Taylor 34).

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Why does Taylor think that the more self-centered modes of contemporary culture are “manifestly inadequate”?

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Self-centered modes of our culture are manifestly inadequate because people begin to make choices purely because it is beneficial for themselves in an instrumental sense. This leads to two of the three malaises: ramped individualism and instrumental reason. Pg. 43

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Why does soft relativism self-destruct? /Why can’t authenticity be defended in ways that collapse horizons of significace?

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Choice alone is insufficient in creating significance in a choice because it creates extreme moral subjectivism. People could not engage in dialogue with one another because people would never be able to disagree, forward an argument, or get to a conclusion. Without horizons of significance all choices would be insignificant because significance gets put on the choice itself rather than the content of the choice or what the person chose making every choice by every person equally significant.

“Your feeling a certain way can never be sufficient grounds for respecting your position, because your feelings can’t determine what is significant. Soft relativism self-destructs” (Taylor 37).

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How did Jean-Jacques Rousseau contribute to the evolving ideal of authenticity?

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"Rousseau frequently presents the issue of morality as that of our following a voice of nature within us... [he] also articulated a closely related idea in a most influential way. This is the notion of what [Taylor wants] to call self-determining freedom."(Pg.27)

So according to Rousseau in order to reach a source of authentic joy and satisfaction or "moral salvation" (as Rousseau put it) we have to follow that voice of nature within us, "authentic moral contact with ourselves"(Pg.27 Mid. paragraph)

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What contributions does Johann Gottfried von Herder make?

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"Herder put forward the idea that each of us has an original way of being human."(Pg.28)

Herder added a form of a 'me' factor in to authenticity. So the idea is that now you could say that a way of being authentic, according to Herder, is that you just have to do things “your” way. You are not going to conform to other being's ways of life, you are going to be authentic, you are going to get everything done the way you want to. ('Being true to yourself')

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Why does Taylor think that one doesn't "reason from the ground up"?

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This is because according to Taylor on page 32, not everyone accepts the same morals as others. For example a Christian and a Satanist reasoning from the ground up would be impossible. This is because both beings accept different morals and so the best idea would be to begin from a middle ground.

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Why does no one acquire the languages needed for self-definition on his or her own?

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Taylor explains that "We are introduced to them through exchanges with others who matter to us"(Pg.33). Taylor theorizes that humans are dialogical beings and therefore in order to gain self-definition we can only come to understand it through dialog with people close enough that we feel comfortable to express ourselves.