Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:42:03.373Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Narrative, History, Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

ULF BOHMANN
ULF BOHMANN*
Affiliation:
Chemnitz University of Technology
*
*<ulf.bohmann@soziologie.tu-chemnitz.de>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Chapter 8 of The Language Animal, Charles Taylor claims that narratives are unsubstitutable for an appropriate understanding of social life and ‘human affairs’ in general. In order to identify open questions in his argumentation as well as unwanted consequences of his outlook, I proceed in three consecutive steps. I first problematize Taylor’s distinction between laws and stories, then go on to address his intentional blurring of stories and histories, and finally suggest that the concept of genealogy might be a promising candidate for describing Taylor’s approach, concluding that he implicitly forms the equation: narrative equals history equals critique.

Dans le huitième chapitre de The Language Animal, Charles Taylor affirme que les narrations ne peuvent se substituer à une compréhension adéquate de la vie sociale et «affaires humaines» en général. Afin d’isoler quelques-unes des questions laissées en suspens dans son argumentation et les conséquences non intentionnelles de son approche, je procéderai en trois étapes successives. Premièrement, je questionnerai la distinction qu’il établit entre lois et récits; deuxièmement, j’aborderai le flou intentionnel qu’il maintient entre récits et histoires; enfin, je suggérerai que le concept de généalogie pourrait s’avérer approprié pour décrire l’approche de Taylor. Je conclurai en avançant qu’il formule implicitement une équation : la narration équivaut à l’histoire qui, à son tour, équivaut à la critique.

Keywords

Charles Taylorliteraturehistorycritiquegenealogynarrativeenlightenmentromanticism
Type
Special Issue: Charles Taylor’s The Language Animal
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 717 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbey, Ruth 2000 Charles Taylor. Teddington: Acumen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakely, Jason 2013 “How Charles Taylor Philosophizes with History: A Review of Dilemmas and Connections.” Journal of the Philosophy of History 7 (2): 231–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohmann, Ulf 2012 “Der ambivalente Aufklärungs- und Rationalitätsbegriff von Taylor und Foucault.” In: Bohmann, Ulf, Bunk, Benjamin, Johanna Koehn, Elisabeth, Wegner, Sascha and Wojcik, Paula (eds.), Das Versprechen der Rationalität. Visionen und Revisionen der Aufklärung. München: Wilhelm Fink, 263–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohmann, Ulf 2013 “Charles Taylors Mentalitätsgeschichte als kritische Genealogie.” In: Busen, Andreas and Weiß, Alexander (eds.), Ansätze und Methoden zur Erforschung politischer Ideen. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 185–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohmann, Ulf, and Montero, Darío 2014 “History, Critique, Social Change and Democracy. An Interview with Charles Taylor.” Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 21 (1): 3–15.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel 1977 Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Jager, Colin 2010 “This Detail, this History: Charles Taylor’s Romanticism.” In: Warner, Michael, VanAntwerpen, Jonathan and Calhoun, Craig (eds.), Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 166–192.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair 2016 “Charles Taylor und das dramatische Narrativ—Argument und Genre.” Transit—Europäische Revue 49: 132–134.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1994 On the Genealogy of Morality, translated by Diethe, Carol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [originally 1887].Google Scholar
Pinkard, Terry 2004 “Taylor, ‘History,’ and the History of Philosophy.” In: Abbey, Ruth (ed.), Charles Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 187–213.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard 1989 Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard 1998 Truth and Progress. Philosophical Papers Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Michael J. 1986 “Charles Taylor’s Moral Subject.” Political Theory 14 (2): 311–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, Meili 2003 “Ricoeur versus Taylor on Language and Narrative.” Metaphilosophy 34 (4): 425–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles 1984a “Philosophy and its History.” In: Rorty, Richard, Schneewind, J.B. and Skinner, Quentin (eds.), Philosophy in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles 1984b “Foucault on Freedom and Truth.” Political Theory 22 (2): 152–183.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 1985 “What is Human Agency?” In: Taylor, Charles, Philosophical Papers 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 15–44.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 1989 Sources of the Self. The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 1995 “Explanation and Practical Reason.” In: Taylor, Charles, Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 34–60.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 2007 A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 2011 “Die Blosse Vernunft (‘Reason Alone’).” In: Taylor, Charles, Dilemmas and Connections. Selected Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 326–346.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles 2016 The Language Animal. The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Hayden 1975 Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar