Charles Taylor’s Diagnosis of the Malaises of Modernity
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Abstract
We refer here to Charles Taylor’s critical assessment of modern Western culture, based on his work The Ethics of Authenticity, when he characterised the malaise of modernity by the loss of horizons of meaning, namely by the replacement of a cosmic order that supported social hierarchies with a subjectivist and relativist individualism. In addition to this diagnosis, a new perspective emerges: the unease that haunts modernity is also driven by the primacy of instrumental reason in individuals’ lives and the resulting erosion of freedom due to blurred moral horizons.
From these three identified ailments, Taylor highlights what he sees as modernity’s vital principle: authenticity. Rather than engaging in the broader debate on modernity, he seeks to uncover the often-overlooked moral sources of Western civilisation. His ultimate goal is to enable a “work of regeneration” of modernity’s ideals.
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