Specters of the nineteenth century: Charles Taylor and the problem of historicism [Book Review]

Journal of Religious Ethics 40 (1):171-192 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper identifies and analyzes the problem of historicism in Charles Taylor's work overall, but with particular emphasis on his most recent publication, A Secular Age. I circumscribe the problem of historicism through reference to the nineteenth-century German philosophical tradition in which it developed, in particular in the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey. I then trace the structural similarities between the notions of history to be found in the thought of Taylor and Dilthey and how these structural similarities raise worries associated with the problem of historicism. I argue that the structural aporia of historicism evident in Taylor's work brings to light a live philosophical problem that is basic to theoretical debates in the study religion

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Religion and the Crisis of Historicism: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives.Herman Paul - 2010 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 4 (2):172-194.
A collapse of trust: Reconceptualizing the crisis of historicism.Herman Paul - 2008 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 2 (1):63-82.
The Necessity of Historicism.Frank Ankersmit - 2010 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 4 (2):226-240.
An Orthodox Historicism?Jack A. Bonsor - 1990 - Philosophy and Theology 4 (4):335-350.
What is historicism?Andrew Reynolds - 1999 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (3):275 – 287.
Beyond Historicism: From Leibniz to Luhmann.Jaap den Hollander - 2010 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 4 (2):210-225.
What is genealogy?Mark Bevir - 2008 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 2 (3):263-275.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-01-18

Downloads
66 (#222,759)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Peter Woodford
Stanford University

Citations of this work

The gift of Mexican historicism.Carlos Alberto Sánchez - 2017 - Continental Philosophy Review 51 (3):439-457.
‘My Kind of Catholic.’ On Taylor’s Contribution to Philosophy of Religion.Guido Vanheeswijck - 2021 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 29 (5):759-775.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Philosophy and the human sciences.Charles Taylor - 1985 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Explanation Of Behaviour.C. Taylor - 1964 - Humanities Press.
Modern social imaginaries.Charles Taylor - 2004 - Durham: Duke University Press.
Philosophical arguments.Charles Taylor - 1995 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

View all 17 references / Add more references