Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the moral epistemology upon which Charles Taylor's arguments against liberal neutrality are based. I then argue that epistemology is consistent with liberal neutrality. My argument rests on two key ideas. First, that the rising incidence of moral tentativity and an inability to make moral commitments which Taylor offers as evidence of liberalism's failure to secure stable identities are instead what we would expect to find in our society as a result of pluralism. Second, I argue that our society is too far from adhering to liberal principles to be taken as offering evidence of how a liberal society would affect its citizens' identities. The ways in which our society fails to be a liberal society can also be expected to inspire the kinds of identity problems Taylor worries about