POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Noble Savage, List Of Domesticated Animals, Human Nature
17 May 2018
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POLI231
Lecture 21 – 10 April 2018
Charles Taylor: The Politics of Recognition
• A wide-ranging philosopher
What does it mean to be a free individual?
• Taylor: partly, this question and its answer have changed
• Around the 18th century, this question started to be answered in terms of the ideal of
authenticity
What is the ideal of authenticity? How is it connected to the ideal of freedom as self-fulfillment
or self-realization?
• Ideal of authenticity: I am free to the extent that I am true to myself and what my particular
being is
• During the 18th century, the idea emerges that individuals have inner thoughts and feelings,
the idea of being in touch with yourself takes on moral significance
• The private self, and even the bedroom, has not always existed
• As psychology develops, we see the idea of living life from the inside
According to Rousseau:
• Human nature has great potential
• The noble savage is compared to civilized man (essentially a domesticated animal)
• Society has distorted our nature
• Imagery of how individuals in society are sculptures deformed by society, so that we can no
longer see the bit of God in them
• Intrinsic morality is recovered through thinking about things for ourselves
• The inner voice is drowned out by the social
• We need a structure that allows for self-realization and the flourishing individual
• Idea of the authentic self
Taylor: critical of authenticity
• Thinks we are obsessed with the modern concept of authenticity and that this is problematic
• Thinks it assumes a false process of identity formation
• We are not just mushrooms that grow from the group up; we are constructed by our social
contexts
• We acquire language → we don’t make up this language; we need social contexts in order to
acquire it
• Identity is not something each person acquires on their own
• We acquire identity dialogically and through social relations. This is a constant throughout
our lives: the people may change, but it is always dialogical. We always define ourselves
through our relations with others
• Recognition by others is a huge part of how we see ourselves
• Identity is shaped by recognition or the absence of recognition or misrecognition
• Withholding recognition or misrecognition can be a form of oppression
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Document Summary
Charles taylor: the politics of recognition: a wide-ranging philosopher. What does it mean to be a free individual: taylor: partly, this question and its answer have changed, around the 18th century, this question started to be answered in terms of the ideal of authenticity. According to rousseau: human nature has great potential, the noble savage is compared to civilized man (essentially a domesticated animal, society has distorted our nature. Imagery of how individuals in society are sculptures deformed by society, so that we can no longer see the bit of god in them. Intrinsic morality is recovered through thinking about things for ourselves: the inner voice is drowned out by the social, we need a structure that allows for self-realization and the flourishing individual. Idea of the authentic self contexts: we acquire language we don"t make up this language; we need social contexts in order to acquire it.
