Charles Taylor "ethics Of Authenticity" Ch 7-8

Front 1

What does "La Lotta Continua" mean?

Back 1

"The stuggle goes on."
Any cultural field involves a struggle; people with different and incompatible views contend, criticize, and condemn each other.

Front 2

What is Taylor's view of the culture of authenticity?

Back 2

We ought to attempt to raise the culture's practice by making more palpable to its participants what the ethic they subscribe to really involves.

Front 3

What is "a work of persuasion"?

Back 3

Taylor believes that we need to try to persuade people that self-fulfilment actually requires unconditional relationships and moral demands beyond the self.

Front 4

Why does Taylor think that the struggle between Modernity's boosters and knockers is itself a mistake?

Back 4

He believes that both sides are wrong.

Front 5

What should both sides be fighting over? How is that different?

Back 5

The struggle ought not to be over authenticity, for or against, but about it, defining its proper meaning.

Front 6

What does Taylor think we should be trying to accomplish? What assumptions are involved in this task?

Back 6

We ought to be trying to lift the cluture back up, closer to its motivating ideal.
There are three assumptions involved:
1. That authenticity is truly an ideal worth espousing.
2. That you can establish in reason what it involves.
3. That this kind of argument can make a difference in practice.

Front 7

Do you agree with Taylor that the ideal of authenticity "speaks for itself"? Why or why not?

Back 7

For the most part, i do agree. Authenticity points us towards a more self-responsible form of life, and shows us how to take our life into our own hands and make it more of our own.
However; there is a danger of becoming too self-centered when authenticity is not fully explained.

Front 8

Why does authenticity open an "age of responsibilization"?

Back 8

By the very fact that this culture develops, people are made more self responsible. With an increase in freedom comes an increase in responsibility.

Front 9

Why does Taylor think it appropriate for a "genuinely free society" to take on the slogan "la lotta continua"?

Back 9

The nature of a free society is that it will always be the locus of a stuggle between higher and lower forms of freedom. Neither side can abolish the other, but the line can be moved.

Front 10

Why do the publicly available reference points (allusions found in literature or art) no longer hold for us?

Back 10

Allusions from many centuries ago were based on commonly understood conceptions of religion and nature. As society has split and become less unified in its ideas, authors cannot allude to the publicly accepted meaning of objects. The reader has to decipher the poet’s “forest of symbols” to understand the reference (83-84).

Front 11

Explain Shelley’s use of the term “subtler languages.”

Back 11

As there are no publicly available reference points, poets must establish their own world of references. Shelley deems this system a “subtler language”, as the author must navigate the nuances of creating, defining, and making clear a new set of symbols (84-85).

Front 12

What is the “ineradicably personal dimension” to which authors like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, or Marcel Proust invite Taylor?

Back 12

Post-romantic poetry tends to deal with the personal feelings of the poets. To truly understand the content of the poem, the reader must know what avenues of information the author had access to, and how his life and emotions influenced the writing. Thus, the personal dimension to the work cannot be taken away (87-88).

Front 13

What is the “something beyond the self” which modern poets have been attempting to articulate?

Back 13

The something beyond the self discusses our place in the world. Modern poets attempt to talk about the nature of life and death and our relation to others in society. By seeing ourselves as part of a larger order, we can advance beyond individualism (88-89).

Front 14

How does Taylor use the issue of response to potential ecological disaster to illustrate both the inadequacy of anthropocentrism and the possibility of subtler languages?

Back 14

Ecological disaster demonstrates the great effect that nature can have on us; there are greater forces beyond our selves, undercutting the idea of anthropocentrism. By dealing with nature and ecological disaster, we can feel more connected to our surroundings, a property possessed by Romantics espousing subtler languages (90-91).

Front 15

What does “La Lotta Continua” mean?

Back 15

“La Lotta Continua” translates in to “the struggle goes on”. Taylor uses this phrase to demonstrate the struggle of the higher and lower for freedom and. the struggle of authenticity being self centered. The highest forms of freedom are when one shows self-responsible moral initiative and dedication. The worst forms of freedom are immoral things such as “pornography”.
Pg.78

Front 16

What is Taylor’s view of the culture of authenticity?

Back 16

A culture that suffers from a constitutive tension. He describes the culture of authenticity as something that is taken to be narcissistic but should not be used or looked upon in a sense of only the self. Authenticity should be taken into consideration by using it to help society and not make it self-centered.
Pg71-72

Front 17

What is “a work of persuasion”?

Back 17

Taylor discuss that we must not fight over authenticity (for or against it) but that we should be fighting about what authenticity means. We need to make our culture work closer to the ideals about what authenticity is, not arguing whether we should or should not be authentic. Knockers and Boosters are just criticizing the opposite opinions and condemn each other; rather we should be working together on finding out what authenticity means.
Pg73

Front 18

Why does Taylor think that the struggle between Modernity’s boosters and knockers is itself a mistake?

Back 18

Taylor believes the struggle between both views on authenticity whether we should be for or against it is a mistake. He believes that we should be arguing over what authenticity actually is not for or against it.
Pg 74

Front 19

What should both sides be fight over? How is that different?

Back 19

He said both sides should be fighting over what authenticity is. We can’t argue for or against authenticity if both sides do not know what authenticity is. It is different because they are arguing whether we should try to have authenticity because some believe it makes us too individualistic.
Pg 74

Front 20

What does Taylor think we should be trying to accomplish? What assumptions are involved in this task?

Back 20

Taylor wants to show that self-fulfillment requires an influence beyond just the self. In doing so, the ideal of authenticity would move to some of its higher forms. Charles Taylor’s view of authenticity rely on the assumptions “(1) that authenticity is an ideal worth espousing; (2) that you can establish in reason what it involves; and (3) that this argument can make a difference in practice” (73). In other words, authenticity and self-fulfillment are good, easily justifiable, and can be chosen outside of pure societal influences (avoiding determinism).

Front 21

Do you agree with Taylor that the ideal of authenticity “speaks for itself”? Why or why not?

Back 21

Taylor’s view of authenticity relies heavily on the assumptions he makes. He recognizes that a lot of modern views of the self are inescapably individualized, and that there are dangers in accepting them fully. However, being authentic points to a more self-responsible way of living, which is acceptable by many groups. Authenticity gives existence a richer mode than lower forms of the ideal. In this sense, the ideal does speak for itself. (74)

Front 22

Why does authenticity open an “age of responsibilization”?

Back 22

Tension exists because of new, self-centered practices. When people’s conception of their fulfillment is not met, they fight to achieve their goals. Thus, followers of the culture of authenticity can struggle with each other to find the greatest achievement, leading to self-centered forms. People are made more responsible to find and fulfill the higher forms of authenticity since only they can choose how to live their lives. (76-77)

Front 23

Why does Taylor think it appropriate for a “genuinely free society” to take on the slogan “la lotta continua”?

Back 23

A free society will always be the locus of the struggle between the forms of freedom and authenticity. Through positive changes, higher forms of authenticity can be found and suppress the lower forms for a temporary period. However, the changes are not permanent, and so struggles between the high and low forms will always exist.

Front 24

What is the difference between the “manner” and the “matter” of authenticity?

Back 24

Manner is concerned with the reference of a self-fulfilling action. Taylor essentially assumes that the manner must be self-referential in authenticity, since it is inseparable from the self. The matter is associated with the content, and Taylor insists that it does not have to be self-referential. Fulfillment can come from bountiful outside sources, such as nature, god, or other communities.

Front 25

Why does Taylor think that confusing these two notions [manner and matter] is catastrophic?

Back 25

Self-referentiality of manner is inescapable in our culture. We cannot meaningfully try to avoid referring to the self, because we have experienced various kinds of atomism and subjectification in our selves. The matter, however, can have aspects outside of self-referentiality. We can aspire to achieve things outside of personal goals (helping the community, for instance). If someone were to say that our goals are inescapably self-centered, their argument would slide steeply into subjectivism.