Strong Evaluation without Moral Sources: On Charles Taylor's Philosophical Anthropology and Ethics (Quellen Und Studien Zur Philosophie)

Charles Taylor (1931- ) is one of the leading living philosophers. This is the first extended study on the key notions of his views in philosophical anthropology and ethical theory. Firstly, Laitinen clarifies, qualifies and defends Taylors thesis that transcendental arguments show that personal understandings concerning ethical and other values (so called strong evaluation) is necessary, in different ways, for human agency, selfhood, identity and personhood. Secondly, Laitinen defends and develops in various ways Taylors value realism. Finally, the book criticizes Taylors view that it is necessary to identify and locate a constitutive source of value, such as God, Nature or Human Reason. Taylor relies heavily on this claim in his accounts of moral life, modern identity and, most recently, secularisation. Laitinen argues that the whole notion of constitutive moral source should be dropped Taylors views concerning strong evaluation and value realism are distorted by the question of constitutive moral sources.